Although the Macaulay Orientation as a whole was enjoyable and exciting, I felt the last day of orientation did not live up to expectations. The third and final day of orientation was intended to be centered on the arts, and in my eyes that goal was not met. I’m not going to lie, I had an amazing time conversing with my fellow Macaulay Honors students across all the campuses and meeting the students that would attend Queens College under the Honors program as well, but was that really the main purpose of having the third day of orientation?
Art, the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power (the definition provided by the Oxford American Dictionary). During the third day of orientation I neither expressed nor experienced any sort of application of human creativity or imagination, except during lunch when I heard the music club play guitar and my new friends tell me hilarious, clever jokes. Oh and don’t forget the wonderful lunches that were prepared for us; respectfully I consider any sort of food to be a culinary art. Overall, I’m sorry but arts day had little to no art. I know this was the first year the orientation was changed, but someone needs to drastically alter the course of that day. If I may suggest, maybe you could hold the orientation at a museum for the arts. The Whitney and Metropolitan are both phenomenal museums that I highly suggest going to in order to satisfy your hunger for the arts. Even watching a movie would suffice. Acting, filming, editing, make-up, there are numerous aspects that go into creating a movie that all correlate to art. So please reconsider having another arts day without actually displaying any art.
When I heard Jonathan Safran Foer was attending our orientation I was excited to find out some of the reasons behind the writing styles, themes, characterization, and other literary techniques he utilized in his world renowned, bestseller Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Yet I was sadly disappointed. Despite the excerpt he chose to read aloud for the incoming class of 2015, Foer spoke little to nothing about his novel. Instead I felt like I was receiving a lecture on the life of Foer and his pompous, self-centered personality. I know it sounds harsh, but throughout the question and answer session Foer rarely answered a question because he was preoccupied with giving an autobiography of his life or preaching one of his strongly opinionated views. My first impression established after reading Foer’s book prior to the interview and the Foer I had established after the interview were two completely different people. A witty, humorous individual was expected in my mind but instead we got Jonathan Safran Foer. I felt Foer’s interview held nothing related to arts except for the fact that he is an author. Aspiring writers in the audience have my sympathy if they believed they were going to receive sound advice on how to advance their careers and follow the path to success in the literary world from Foer. Although I negatively criticized Foer’s interview and personality, I am a hypocrite. After sitting through his terrible interview I actually waited 40 minutes on line to get an autograph and politely thank him for the time he spent with us.
Arts Day was fun, but not for the reasons intended. If anyone of authority reads this blog, please don’t take it as an insult. Utilize this criticism to improve upon a day that has plenty of potential to be something great.
