Final Episodes

Our last class at Dr. A's house about final episodes was an awesome, satisfying, concluding class. Something I found really interesting about the final episode clips we watched was the emotions the episodes appealed to even though we had not invested our time and watched the entire telenovela. Though we only knew some basic background information about the telenovela's plot and characters, I found myself feeling the sadness and hope that was portrayed on screen.

One of my biggest take-aways from this class is the importance and prevalence of emotions in everything we do. Though we try to be rational, logical, and unfazed by life, we still not only experience our own emotions, but look to witness and watch other people experience strong and deep emotions on screen, in books, and in all forms of entertainment. We sometimes feel the need to push emotions down, but, like Dr. A said, emotions are always telling you something.

I think we feel the need to avoid emotions because they're messy and can seem to slow things down, but I think emotional intelligence and being in tune with oneself emotionally and mentally plays a key role in success and striking a healthy balance in all aspects of life.

Overall, this class has been one of my favorite classes I've ever taken. I enjoyed watching these telenovelas from the perspective of research and analysis; I've not only learned to be more aware of the entertainment I consume but how to effectively analyze that media and the messages it is sending. Like Dr. A said, everything has a meaning and a message even if it is not direct, and I believe this class has opened my eyes to many of those messages and has taught me how to analyze and question those messages.