#idk what the equivalent of A-levels is for Canada

[elliottjpg]

The Meiwaku Gang is made up of a computer engineer, a chemistry expert, an almost-doctor, and a samurai who didn't finish high school

[sporadic-writer]

Welcome to the neighborhood

Warnings: swearing, mentions of drugs (just weed, I smoke responsibly sorry if reading about it bothers you), as always stop reading if you don't like it.

Note: idk which twin has the girlfriend, Sam or Harry. So let me know. Also, let me know who you guys want this to be about (Tom or Harrison). Another thing is that I wrote this before my country fully flushed itself down the shitter in chaos and injustice. So let’s all read this to escape a tad and for some metal rest. BLM!

The teaser I wrote to start is here

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"Yeah mom.. no I'm fine! Really! Haha promise! They tested me and told me since it's negative then they will add me into the adjusted hours group. They said I can get at least 2 full days a week in rotating with the other keepers. I just gotta fill some paperwork out first." You walked around your back deck and tended to plants while speaking on the phone to your mom back home in Iowa.

"Y/N are you sure? You being in another country during all this makes me so nervous. It's so easy to get sick sometimes." You rolled your eyes at the dramatics.

"I'm set here! I still have a job, a place to live thanks to Renee's husband, and no coronavirus. I'd say I'm alright." Talking to your mom despite her worries did put s smile on your face. The sun was shining and the air was finally not cold as hell in England. You finally felt settled now that you had more time to move into your new home. Your mother kept talking and soon got called that dinner was ready. "Ok mom love you too. Tell dad I said hi!"

After hanging up you looked for the head you noticed peaking at you earlier while you talked. There was nothing, but you did hear the guys who lived next door talking about your cousin's husband as 'old pool guy' and wanting to use the hot tub. It made you laugh and you made a mental note to find them later and invite them since they wanted to hang out so badly.

You didn't know much about them other than it was just guys. They all seemed to know each other for a while and at least 2 of them were brothers. That is all you gathered from some occasional eavesdropping. Downside of social distancing starting right after moving into the cute little place given as a congrats at your first real job. You never saw everyone's faces to distinguish each guy. Your cousin’s husband had the place outside London and never really lived there anymore, and rather than sell it he gave it to you. Easier than finding a shitty apartment with way too high rent. Plus, Renee would not let you say no. So you didn't. Thanks Xander!

After finishing checking the water level on the pool and tub to round out the to do list, you were about to go inside to finish new employment paperwork when a soccer ball got sent over into your yard. It came from the boy's yard. No time like the present to break the ice you thought as walked to get said ball.

Smiling and laughing to yourself you heard exclamations happening among the group of men. You popped your head up by standing on your deck railing and they looked to you. They apologized over nothing and you thought it was sweet. Plus, it was nice to actually get a proper look at their faces. You still didn't really know their names, but at least now they were coming over around 8 for hot tub time and drinks.

TIME SKIP

"Thanks for letting us come over! Though, sorry for talking about your family and place without even properly meeting you." The man speaking, Tom as you learned, smiled as you handed him a drink.

You shook your head in protest. "Really it's fine. This is my cousin Xander's place. I just got a job at the London zoo and this was a congrats gift. Sorta to take out the struggle of finding a shitty apartment. Plus, I've been busy over there so that's why you have not seen me much. Still working out my schedule, plus a virus." While talking you lifted the cover off the hot tub. "Now, I believe there was a purpose to this visit?"

"Despite my brother's lack of tact before, that wasn't why we actually wanted to hang out with you. We wanted to meet you as well." Tom's smile made you do the same in return. You looked to the guys on your deck and chuckled.

"Then why did you come in swim trunks if that wasn't the objective?" You caught them and knew it based off the blush on Harry's face. "I'm teasing. It's totally fine. You guys get comfy, jet buttons are on the side, I'm gonna change and grab some more beers and such." You let them be as you changed into your suit in your room. You made sure you were all set and presentable. It was quick and you put your hair in a pony tail while walking to your fridge. Grabbing some bottles you made your way back to the group.

Passing them around you spoke, "Sorry if these suck. I'm still figuring out which beers here I like. I had American ones but finished those. So I don't know fully what does and doesn't suck."

They took their bottles and Tuwaine smiled at you. "There are English equivalents I can tell you. Now I gotta ask, and don't take offense. But why does it smell like perfume and weed out here Y/N?"

"Yeah I smelled that too! Thought it was the chemicals from the tub or something.." The man learned to be Harrison looked at the hot tub he sat in in reference. You blushed at being caught. Eyes went wide slightly as well. Then you mentally scolded yourself after turning and seeing your ash tray and formally lit joint on the deck table.

"Haha yeah you caught me. The perfume is Chanel, put that on before you came, and the pot is well.. pot! Smoked that before you came... Y'all aren't narcs are you? If you're chill I'll share." You didn't need things to go sour first time hanging out with neighbors. You needed friends your age here outside of work!

Tom laughed and smiled. "Relax darling, it's fine." He watched you let out a breath of relief. None of them were ones to judge someone on what they do casually in their free time. "Maybe another time on the sharing though, I'm set. Just tell us about yourself."

"Well offer stands and I will finish that in a bit full disclosure. But me, 22, recently employed keeper at the London zoo, umm I'm from Boise, Idaho, mom and dad are back there, very easy going, and a big fan of nature and having fun! I got my degree from University of Wisconsin and this is my first time being overseas, only been to Canada in regards to international travel. Any specific questions?" They all took in your short backstory as you climbed in with them in the tub; instantly relaxing in the hot water, eyes closing as you drank your beer. Harrison was quickly taking in the details of your face. A few ear piercings, long eyelashes coated in pretty mascara, nice jewelry on too. He got the sense you were chill and put together. Plus, you seemed to know how to have a good time regardless of the situation.

"Boyfriend?" Harry's question led to a glare from his brother and a small smile from you.

You shook your head no. "Nope, we ended things a little before I moved here. Mutual thing, he is working on his masters back home. Even if I stayed that would've ended things because it becomes your whole world really."

"You have your masters?" Tom noticed you shaking your head no and listened as you explained you took a job here instead.

"I need money more than another degree. So I'm here kickin' it in a hot tub with 5 fun Brits instead!" Your smile was contagious to the guys. Soon more drinks were had and stories were shared. They all really took a liking to you. “Now tell me about yourselves!”

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I am gonna make this a series, length not decided. And for real let me know to have the main love interest be Tom or Harrison. I don’t care either way. 

As always, like and reblog! Feedback is appreciated as well!

Taglist: (message me to be added or removed, sorry if I forgot someone)

@jillanaholland @averyfosterthoughts

[erynriryn]

so I'm canadian, not american, but some of our stuff is pretty comparable. sugary food such as waffles, pancakes, and crepes are considered breakfast food but stuff like pop isn't. I guess there has to be at least a little nutritional value for it to be considered acceptable breakfast food.

you typically can't walk to basically anywhere, no. like if you live in a big city there will be busses and subways but not a lot of decent shopping will be within walking distance. my closest anything is a gas station and it's like a 10-15 minute walk, which I don't actually consider that bad but I know compared to a lot of european countries it is.

starbucks isn't big here but people do drink tim hortons like it's water in a desert, I assume that may be equivalent? like I guess not everyone drinks tim hortons over coffee from home but the people who do do it like clockwork they would literally rather be late and get their timmies than skip out on it and they will get pissed off at the workers if they are running behind it's super shitty.

idk how different canada is from the us on this one but this summer I went to the netherlands and I didn't find the food serving sizes to be thaaaat different? like at resteraunts I was more or less served about what I expected I'd be served. maybe a little less but not a lot? but I also didn't eat at any fast food places while I was there so maybe that's where the main differences lie?

highschool hierarchy here definitely exists but no where near the level that it does in american media. like everyone does intermingle despite what group they are part of and even though the group stereotypes are kinda there it is no where near as rigid as you see depicted. and ppl don't like respect or fear certain groups. for me highschool was just kinda like: "oh those are the girls that are judgmental and mean to me as a weird queer person gunna stay clear".

I ALSO want to know why americans wear shoes inside bc wtf yall!

A Canadian POV can be done as well!

To me it's interesting how sweets are breakfast foods in the States and Canada.

In my country we eat salty foods and we have homemade (home brewed) coffee to go alongside the dish

My grandma often serves national dishes or something simple like palenta (it's a type of Italian dish /sidenote I'm not Italian/ with cornstarch/cornmeal..?) it's quite nutritious and she serves it with kajmak. 😅

[twocubes]

US vet here: Other western, wealthy, and industrialized nations have smaller and more efficient militaries. This means there are vastly more US military personnel than military personnel of other culturally and economically equivalent nations, for example Canada's entire defense budget is comparable to the US Navy's corrosion prevention budget. Additionally, non US militaries in this set require higher equivalent security clearances and training from their service members since (cont)

(cont) fewer personnel translates to on average higher stakes operations at a higher frequency per service member. This means that non US service members are less likely to have the free time or a personality type conducive to blogging in addition to being few and far between in number. Finally, military service in the US is part of a larger hyper-patriotic narrative which makes it socially acceptable for service members to make their employment a figurehead of their identity.

weeellll.... comparing the US to Canada might be somewhat misleading.

like, according to this site, high income OECD countries have on average 6.3 active duty military personnel per 1000 people, which is somewhat higher than the US’s 5.22 per 1000, and significantly higher than canada’s 2.2 per 1000.

moreover, according to alexa, only roughly 36% of tumblr’s traffic is from the US. idk, one could naively expect at least one blog by some non-us military person by now, although i’d need a more precise distribution...

also, well, not to put too fine a point on it, but i’ve been having a nagging suspicion that the US’s military budget might be massively overinflated in ways that makes it not particularly reflective of any practical facts about the actual military? you hear a lot about absurdly expensive boondoggles in the military is what i’m saying and it makes a girl wonder at some point...

anyways. that said, at the moment alexa says that the top 4 countries on tumblr besides the US are japan, the UK, china, and germany, and all four of those have rates of military involvement that are like, much lower, so it might still be a statistical artifact

otherwise, well, i guess that leaves us to theorize from cultural differences and various levels of social engineering from the military i guess?

[exmuslimbecause]

Hello, I've bring think later about my future(since I'm still quite young) and I'm unsure if I'm gonna live and built my future the way I want it or if I should just marry a Muslim guy like I was going to and keep me beliefs to myself. I don't know what will happen if I chose the first once i assume my family will cut all ties with me Second opinion I will keep them idk advice please?

Hello,

Thankyou so much for the message. Since we don’t know your age and which region ofthe world you live, we will discuss a range of options here, and you canmake the decision what is most appropriate for you (we strongly recommend you don’t reveal any of these information to anyone onlineunless you are prepared to guard yourself against any unforeseen risk no matterwhich part of the world you live in).

·        Ifyou are between the ages 15- 20, the most important thing for you is to start preparing for your future, nomatter what part of world you live in. It is common that traditional parentswill start grooming young daughters for marriage once they reach puberty. Ifyour parents have raised the issue of marriage, approach them politely that you want to focus on your academic lifefirst. At least two reasons why this is important: it will build yourqualification and skills that help will you achieve some level of financial independence through a careerof your suitability. By the time you complete a bachelors or master’s degree(or equivalent), life will change – nonetheless, you will gain both good andbad experience that will shape your knowledge of how you socialise with others,how you sift through different personalities of people you meet so you knowwhat kind of person you want to marry in future, rather than solely relying onarrange marriage or even a love marriage based on impulsive decisions. Having a good academic background can help you be financially independent infuture whether you are a Muslim or Ex-Muslim, want to get married or not. It iseven more crucial if at a later stage in your life you decide to come out asEx-Muslim and end up being abandoned by your family and family-in-law.Therefore, making sure you are educated up to (bachelors’) degree level and canlook after yourself independently with a decent job is a good thing to havewhether you choose to marry a Muslim guy as you said or remain a closet Ex-Muslim, or choose to take control of your own life by coming out to your familyand community.

·        Assumingyou prefer to come out as Ex-Muslim and not get married: If you live in aregion which is largely secular (e.g. Europe,USA, Canada, Australia) and if you already live in a household that isreligiously conservative or a history of domestic violence, it is important thatyou see your nearest victim support or domestic violence helpline for advice onwhat support you might have in the worst case scenario. You can find localvictim support organisations with a simple Google search. Alternatively, the UNWomen has a standalone page with globalcontact numbers that might be helpful. Before you speak to your family/community about leaving the Islamic faith orrefusing to get married at an early age, if you think they might reactviolently or you might be at risk of social and economic deprivation - a) If you perceive your life to be in danger, have an escape plan in place -  make sure you have your passport, bankdocuments, academic certificates, proof of ID such as driving license, money,portable smartphone battery, laptop, cash, medicine etc. all in one place thatyou can collect quickly in a bag and leave without delay. This will free up thetime you will need to collect these items which you can use to contact 999, ora trusted friend. Alternatively, if you have a trusted friend, leave aphotocopy of the important documents with them (also backup clothes, medicine).This is because if your life is indeed in danger (which won’t come knocking aswas in Banaz’s case), you can quickly leave the residence and get shelterthrough your friend. b) Make sure you have a spare key ofyour room, and every door along the corridor of the main gate of your residence.This is because honour violence often has young women being imprisoned by theirparents without support or even access to bathroom for days. So if you areindeed locked out, with spare keys you can leave the residence when households’members are asleep, away and you can call the Police once you have access tophone. c) Downloadpersonal safety apps and set it upto send automatic calls to trusted contacts if you are in trouble – some apps allow you to call by just hitting a button so you can may be able tosend SoS call instantly before you lose your phone. If you do not have trustedcontacts, get in touch with local police or domestic abuse helpline personneland ask them if you can add them as your trusted emergency contact on the apps –in most times they should not say no.

·        Ifyou live in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt etc., we strongly suggestyou do not discuss the issue of leavingIslam or confess to anyone who can potentially dox you and expose you todanger. If you are asked to marry against your will, first try to resolve theargument with your family with calm and offer alternatives (e.g. say “I respectyour concern about my future but please allow me to complete myeducation/pursue my career first and then we should consider the discussion”)in a friendly tone. If the argument escalates to an aggressive level, do notengage with them and leave the conversation immediately politely. We only askyou to be calm and polite as a way to not give anyone an excuse to hit youviolently. If an abuser wants to hurt you, they will use the easiestexcuse to justify their action. Make it difficult for such danger tomaterialise. In the meantime, make sure you contact the local domestic abusehelpline or the police and ask them what support will be available to youduring an emergency. If your family is forceful, violent and pushes you tomarry against your will, get help ASAP (as mentioned above). If your familyagrees to allow you complete your education, use this time to pursue skills andqualification that will enable you to apply for work visa or student visa in asafer country. Write to an embassy of your choice explaining your situation(they usually reply to you within 5 to 10 working days); if you want to pursuea PhD, prepare for pre-entrance exams and assessments and write to professorswho will be interested to fund you. We will release more information onacademic guidance soon. You should inform your parents that you have left theIslamic faith only if you are in a country that will support you with emergencyaccommodation, police protection in case your face repercussion from yourfamily/community. Our understanding would be once you have settled in a countrywhere your human rights are protected, you can choose to tell our family thatyou are an Ex-Muslim and choose to live life your way.

Wehope the information helps. If you need any clarification, please feel free towrite us back. We will respond within 5 working days.

Pleasenote, it is not our position to tell you what you should or should not do butonly recommend the best possible options for you. It is only fair as we don’tknow you personally and honestly are not in your shoes to make such ajudgement. More importantly, our principle here is to equip you withinformation and support that will empower you to take your own decisions. Thisis called independence and something we want every Ex-Muslim to embrace – i.e.be their own guardian, think for themselves and empower themselves economicallyand socially so that in future they are in a position to help others and makethis world a better place to live.

[magnetictapedatastorage]

when i was in middle school i found out germany had this weird shit called “health care” and i was like oh word??? i need pills that cost $800, i gotta move there. i didn’t even consider that other places might have it. canada whom? idk her. i had my eye on the ball. in my mind this was a system that was both an anomaly and a miracle. i thought it could only be some strange temporary mistake in the law that i had to exploit immediately. so i started learning german. with books. very, very old books.

by high school the thickness/badness of my accent (when speaking german) was nigh untenable, which i learned when i started using duolingo and failed every single speak-into-the-mic test multiple times a day. herein was the main problem: literally no one else in the state of new york cared to learn german, ever, at all. 

even in new york city, where job ads openly stated “multiple language(s) a plus”, german apparently had close to zero penetration. I vividly remember, in what must have been no earlier than 2016, NYC german language signage (for tourists) having two faded flag icons on it. somehow i doubt there were many east german tourists.

I don’t have much reason to learn german, now that I have hope of “other options” one day (and now that half the family speaks spanish), but It’s kind of funny looking back, how I used to give myself headaches trying to read an online german newspaper with a skill level equivalent to maybe 1A at best (meaning only half-way through a foundation course)

my favorite german word is the somewhat outdated slang word “bandsalat”

[lazylacadaemon]

(1) hi! this is a similar question to the other anon asking advice, but with a different twist. i'd like to ask specficially if you have any advice for uni students planning to major in classics/classical studies? how was your experience with it? did you end up focusing more on the history/archaeology side of things or the ancient languages? is it possible to do both? also, on a somewhat related note, how do you find doing your masters in classics in canada? i'm briefly (cont..)

(2) considering it (i’m on the west coast), but job prospects look…. a little dismal. is that just me, or is that a legitimate concern? would you happen to know what kind of options are out there in academia now for people who’d like to pursue more than an undergrad in the humanities? sorry that this ask is a little out of control with the questions. feel free to filter out your answers; i don’t want to bother you too much or take up too much of your time!

Hey thanks for dropping by to ask, I’l do my best to account for as many things as I can. This could get long haha. A lot of this is from my (limited) personal experience and the experience of people I know, so don’t take it as the be all end all answer.

1. Classics in general

I adore the discipline, I adore my profs, and while I complain a lot about dead languages I really don’t have any regrets doing it. I think the experience will vary from school to school and country to country, but I just want to get my overarching fondness for the ancient world out of the way.

In my undergrad I focused mostly on art history and archaeology (though my minor is in linguistics) because I’m a very visual person, I’m a self-taught artist, and it was interesting to me. My supervisor (who sort of adopted me because I took so many of her classes) is the one who really loves getting down in the dirt and she’s always trying to get me to get out there too but I’ve never been on a dig and I honestly don’t know how useful I’d be on one. xD In grad school now I’m in a program called Ancient Societies and Cultures which is an interdisciplinary program- there are people like me who are Classics majors that want to bridge that gap between literature/language and archaeology and history, but there are also people who major in things like math/engineering who want an older perspective on things too. As far as I know, my university is the only one with such a MA program in classics. 

But yeah it’s certainly possible to do both in undergrad- I took a lot of myth courses, a lot of history courses, and a few courses I wouldn’t have thought to take due to limited options in certain years (but tbh I nearly died in 500 level Roman Monarchy because I know pretty much nothing about Late Imperial Roman History, just the art lol). I of course took a lot of Greek and Latin- I was going through a bit of a crisis in my first couple years trying to decide between East Asian Studies and Classics, and taking Intermediate Japanese at the same time as Intro Ancient Greek was… interesting. I didn’t take Latin until my MA- I don’t think it was a Super important requirement for what I was doing, but I’m very glad I did it anyway. Also… a shameful admittance… I have my BA in Classics, I am maybe 2 months tops from getting my MA… and I have never read the Iliad- the closest equivalent to a bible there is- all the way through. In English. (I’ve read the Odyssey twice to make up for it though)

2. Classics in Canada

The first most important distinction in Classical studies: in North America, Classics is usually put together with the history department. In Europe, Classics is still fundamentally linked to its origins in philology. Classical archaeology in particular is actually a really niche discipline, at least in North America- the anthropologists don’t want it because we have “too much literature”, the historians don’t want it because we have “too much dirt”, and the art historians sometimes begrudgingly take us in even though they aren’t super fond of dirt either. I had a colleague who referred to a complete and utter lack of good programs in classical archaeology at “the university that shall not be named” in Toronto (whatever it was, it did leave quite a sour impression on him).

Secondly, Canadian students relative to American and European students entering classics are at a particular disadvantage if they want to dive right into languages: in the States, there seems to be a Latin revival in secondary school- maybe even in primary school- so you can legitimately have people with 4 years of Latin straight out of high school under their belts. In Canada, the last private school that offered Latin at the secondary level dropped the program. It’s not a big problem if you are doing an undergrad and are super interested in doing languages (although they’ve cut the Classical Languages Major here because only like 2 people did it… pretty ridic still and a lot of my profs are Very Angry), but say you are me who took Greek in undergrad on a whim but no Latin, and then looking at grad schools like UBC who seem to cater to American/International students by requiring a minimum of six years of Latin or Greek and four in the other- friggin impossible when you only have been doing Greek and no Latin for half your undergrad. However, if you love Latin there are (or at least… there were, idk what’s up with this political mess) a lot of prospects in the US for teaching Latin and it’s an easy straight shot from uni into the field (easy if you don’t mind living in the States).

Finally, specifically, I don’t know much about Classics outside my university. I’m a student at the U of A and, being the filthy rich Albertans we are, we tend to have a lot of advantages that other universities might not. We have a tidy little collection of artefacts in our museum from Greece, Italy, Egypt and the Near East, the UK, and so forth. We have regular exchange programs in Italy for students interested in poli sci, history, art history, or classics, and we have regular digs in both Italy and Greece. We also have pretty decent entrance requirements and great profs- still pretty limited to Greece and Rome, but I think we recently got someone who is an expert in Sanskrit for instance, which is great. I don’t know much about other universities- I’ve heard gossip that U of T has some interesting department drama, and I had a former classmate who really really really loved a particular school on the east coast (the name is escaping me right now but it was clear she would have much rather been there- I want to say it’s in New Brunswick). 

3. Job Prospects

ok let me get one thing very clear: i’m really

really

rEALLy tired of people who have only taken high school repeatedly telling me that the Only Thing you can get with a History/Classics Degree is being a professor (or a teacher). The professor life is a very viable option and a lot of profs will either nudge you toward it or away from it- my dad is a prof (not in humanities) and is really pressuring me to do a phd because ‘its the best job in the world’ etc etc but I’m not sure if it’s what I wanna do, at least not yet. I really don’t like the idea of moving around where the jobs are, and a lot of it does depend heavily on travelling around to lectures and talking to people and hoping you make a good connection. It is dismal, as my profs will be the first to admit, but Classics is definitely still hiring new profs- my uni just got a new mediterranean archaeologist I believe after holding auditions for a couple months. 

This is a worry that comes up so often in classes and there isn’t a straight answer for it- the terrifying and also liberating answer is that life is messy. It’s not terribly likely you’ll get a job in your field- but that applies to classicists and historians just as it does to engineers and microbiologists. The degree, the specialty, isn’t that important. Getting it done, doing something is more important. 

I’m not the best person to ask about what happens after university because I’m right on the brink of moving to Toronto to do another MA in Museum Studies/Information Studies - I’ve been in school from Kindergarten with no breaks and I’m going to be in University for exactly 10 years- not too keen on spending another 7 doing a phd. I’ve been in a very lucky position and my parents have been very supportive of me, I can’t thank them enough. They’ve been saving since I was born to send me to university, and my dad was very supportive of my arts degree because I get to do a lot of the things he didn’t have the option to do when he was going to school and I get to provide his discipline with a new perspective and vice versa every time we talk. I have a great support network of family and friends who have made this possible for me and I’m forever in their debt.

Knowing ancient greek isn’t going to get me a job, but knowing how to talk about ancient greek to people who are curious, knowing how to communicate in writing, how to communicate orally, how to make my subject less impenetrable and elitist for other people are all skills that are invaluable to me. Who knows, maybe some employer will look at a resume like /you know greek AND latin? you must be a crazy hard worker and disciplined to pick up dead languages/. If you get wrapped up in the “what am I going to do with this”, you’re not really focusing on the right things? Sometimes it won’t be obvious until you’re looking back on it, or until someone else is looking at it. I’ll pull up the typical ‘JK Rowling was a classics major’ of course, and I’ll point out that there are so many many many more jobs out there than there are fields that account for them. If that piece of paper gets you a job you enjoy, regardless of whether you use 100% of your skills and knowledge every day, then enjoying the road to getting that piece of paper is worth it imho. 

Think beyond teaching, think about archaeology, museums, archives, local history, information, movies and documentaries, writing fiction or non-fiction… and there are possibilities out there that haven’t occurred to me only because I’m still in school. You can’t predict what jobs are going to look like in the future and hell, job prospects for snake people are dismal enough as it is. I live in a province that’s absolutely flooded with engineers for example, and a lot of them face difficulties because of the rollercoaster economy here regardless of how ‘useful’ the degree is considered relatively. Might as well do something you enjoy, something that is applicable to multiple disciplines (Classics is like history, language arts, art history, etc all rolled into one and they all teach basics of communication, critical thinking, etc. that are indispensable for any society). Also, Classics remains desperately isolated from other disciplines in part because people have been avoiding it- there’s a lot that could be done uniting it with other disciplines like cultural studies or computers - especially because so many profs make new websites that look straight out of the 90s. -cries-

I know this wasn’t part of your question but also consider it from a social angle- Classics is considered to be a dying discipline in part because it is considered “useless” and partly as it has been historically perceived- correctly- as “elitist”. However, you’ll notice that classics is becoming more and more relevant, particularly with the rise of extreme right, white/euro supremacist groups appropriating the imagery of “western civilization”. The discipline desperately needs fresh ideas, new perspectives, and challenges to the status quo to keep idiots like this from misusing the ancient world for their own racist, sexist agendas. My thesis is getting increasingly relevant to this as I continue writing it, and though it will ultimately reach a small audience the knowledge that I’ve researched myself and have had peer reviewed will become invaluable to me in dispelling misconceptions and outright lies about ‘western’ civilization. Please consider it from that angle as well.