My name is Simon Creek, and I'll be writing for the Shimer blog regularly from now on. I'm a second-semester Shimerian and a fourth-semester college student. I'm from the Midwest and made forays into North Carolina and Nicaragua before settling into Shimer. As a biography, allow me to indulge in some half-serious analogy. The salient points of my life thus far read like a Kafka novel, or else a Russian drama written by Lemony Snicket and scored by Morrissey. In short, I'm living an epilogue never written. What does one do, after all, post-crisis? What's left for the protagonist who's endured countless absurdities after the final page? In my case, one reads, drinks tea, and works at a lovely little library; in short, one becomes quite dull (a word I'm using only because of its common implications -- substitute settled or even elderly as you please). Don't get me wrong -- I'm more than happy being boring, and I love Shimer dearly. There's room here for a little domestic life as well as for excitement, and I've chosen the former. With the apartments provided by campus housing, I've been able to piece together quite a nice home with my significant other (living together at college is one of the many unsung perks of same-sex relationships).
At my previous colleges, of which there are two, I majored in comparative religions, which remains a pet subject of mine, along with gender/sexuality. It's a fair bet that at any given time I'm writing or have just written a paper on one topic or the other, if not both. I'm amusingly passionate about my studies, so you, my dear readers, can expect that I will post extensively on them in the future. I'll also write about my work-study job at the Shimer library; where I go to get the best tea in Chicago; the staggering variety of rituals of non-"big five" religions one can find here; and my never-ending struggle to get my furry-animal fix while living in the dorms. I firmly believe it's impossible to study the Great Books and retain one's sanity without petting cute kittens every once in a while.
For my next post, I'll be writing about Shimer-as-magic, a trope I've heard bandied about by current and prospective students alike. Think more classic Faery and fewer unicorns.
Comments