Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Final Blog

In my final blog, I will be discussing the second half of the play “The Twelfth Night” which was written by William Shakespeare. My last hours at serving at Cristo Rey also took place last week which was such a great opportunity. The amount of care and love present in the type of service I was participating in made working with the children so much more enjoyable. However the love that I have fostered when working with these children has also caused me pain, much like the characters of the play. They are in bad situations and I worry that they may never escape.

The last three Acts were in my opinion the best part of the play. Viola, who is still disguised as Cesario, denies Olivia’s passionate love for him (her). Olivia who is now swooning in love with Cesario confessed this to him but in reply he states that no woman will ever be granted access to his heart. Conversely, the Duke still sends his grand love letters to Olivia. In the end, Olivia falls in love with Viola’s twin brother, Sebastian, who is disguised as yet another person at the time. The Duke realizes that in the end he never really loved Olivia, only the idea of loving someone. Viola reveals herself to the Duke and they realize and admit their true feelings about each other.

There is a lot of love and passion present in this story but although it caused much happiness in the end, it caused more pain in the beginning. Love can be thrilling when it is good to you but when love doesn’t give back, it hurts. This was Olivia, Viola and the Duke’s predicament in the play. They all loved someone who didn’t love them back and that was the cause of their suffering.

Much like at Cristo Rey, love is the cause of my suffering. I wish that I could help these kids more than what I am currently doing. As I left the high school, I wondered if I made a difference. I feel as if my help was only a temporary fix to the problems these kids face in their lives. While I tried to provide guidance inside the classroom, I only wish that I could have helped them as much outside the classroom. Hearing their stories and realizing the tough life that they live, I was beside myself. In the end, I felt as if the only thing I could do was hope and pray that they would do the right thing.

This semester has taught me a lot but if I had to choose one thing of most importance, I would have to say that it has shown me how intricate poetry can be. I never realized that poetry can have so many level of understanding. It’s safe to say that this course has shown me how interesting the art can be. Now that I understand poetry a lot more, I appreciate it in a way I never did before Loyola.

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