Ashley G
Professor Zoller
Life Narratives
10/11/2012
Latin
Kid
I was a bit of a
dork in high school. I had intellectual conversations about sci-fi movies, was
in band, choir, theatre, and Latin Club. “Latin Club?” You may say in
confusion. “I thought Latin was a dead language, who would voluntarily study
that in school?” Well, it’s not and I did. I took Latin because I thought it
sounded cool, in a I- can- go- around- speaking- Latin- and- no- one- will-
know- what- I’m- saying sort of way. I saw it as a secret code to be deciphered
and an adventure to be had. After all I had always enjoyed Greco-Roman
mythology and I decided that Latin was something that I could study for five
years (my school started languages in eighth grade). I got much more out of
those years than a Latin education.
On my first day of Latin I was formally
introduced to Mrs. Perry, the one and only Latin teacher at my middle/ high
school. She was quite a character to say the least. Her attire was simple yet
elegant and reflected the teacher style that dominated schools twenty years
ago; she wore long skirts and blouses often with little flats. But the most
noticeable aspect of her appearance was her hair. Mrs. Perry, Magista or Gistra
to those of us who came to love her, had white hair that was in a sort of frizzy
triangle shape. It stuck close to her scalp then puffed out in a conical shape that
came just below her petite shoulders. A student once made a toilet paper roll
doll of her that had a literal cone of white paper on the top; she kept it and
thought it was hilarious.
That was another
thing I loved about Magistra (her name a reference to the feminine form of the
Latin word for teacher), she was perhaps the happiest and funniest teacher I
have ever had. She was always happy to go off on a tangent about something that
was even the slightest bit related to our lesson and was humorous. When
teaching us the word for ‘suddenly’ she ducked behind her podium and leapt out
crying, “Subito!” In our first year of Latin she had us do exercises where she
would say “Insperata, experata,” repeatedly as we breathed in and out. Then she
would have us point to various parts of our bodies in a Latin version of “Head,
Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” which always concluded with us bending and
straightening our legs while we did spirit fingers. A strange sight to say the
least.
Perhaps you’re
thinking, “Well, was she a good teacher? That stuff seems kinda silly.” To
which I respond, yes Magistra Perry was one of the greatest teachers I have
ever had. Then you add, “Oh then you must be a very good speaker of Latin.” For
all those years of Latin I can honestly say that I cannot form more than a few
sentences in Latin, but nowadays the approach to Latin is to have it be more of
a literally supplement that having it become a second language. It’s not a dead
language (though my older sister would disagree) but it is not spoken fluently
in common conversation. Latin provided me with a time to learn from an
exceptional teacher and to spend time with some of my greatest friends,
Andromeda, Ulysses, and Aurora to name a few.
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This
brings me to Latin Club. When a Latin
student reaches junior year they are automatically inducted into Latin Club. Its
primary, and really only function, was to provide a way for us to go on a trip
to New York City every other year. Well my junior year finally came I was ecstatic
to go on the trip; I myself had not been to NYC in a few years and was excited.
We rode down in the morning, hot chocolate, doughnuts and Pillow Pets in hand
as we boarded a charter bus the club had rented. Then came the three hour drive
to the city, I remember nothing of it.
Our morning was
spent in the Cloisters Museum, a relatively small hodgepodge museum building drawing
from numerous medieval styles. It houses many medieval pieces of art and is an
offshoot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where my class was headed later in
the afternoon. I can still visualize the rooms and the layout of the small
museum that houses sculptures of Christ from numerous periods, the tombs of
knights and the famous Unicorn Tapestries. For those of you not well versed in
famed medieval tapestries, the Unicorn Tapestries are a series of seven
tapestries depicting a unicorn hunt. The tapestries seem to some to portray the
unicorn in Christ-like way as the unicorn is slaughtered in the end but turns
up in a later tapestry alive. The most famous of the tapestries is titled The Unicorn in Captivity and shows the
seemingly resurrected unicorn enclosed in a fence. The tapestries occupy their
own special room in the Cloisters. I’m not really sure why we all found these
tapestries so interesting but I guess that’s beside the point.
The Cloisters is a small museum but it does
have a small garden on a terrace overlooking the Hudson River. Oh the times we
had on that terrace. On one occasion, a few of us were up on the terrace in the
garden and were looking at the various plants. Strangely, a cluster of plants
was labeled “Magic Plants.” My friend Silenus (as I did before, I will refer to
my friends by their Latin names or nicknames) informed me that those types of
plants were thought to have had magical properties in medieval times. While I
was pondering this Silenus proceeded to break off a piece of one of the plants
and eat it.
“Silenus!” I
scolded in a hushed whisper. “You can’t eat the plants. They’re the museum’s
plants. Why would you eat that anyway? That’s gross.”
“It was just a
chive.” Silenus answered completely avoiding my first point. He shrugged it off
and continued around the garden. I rolled my eyes and followed him. I suppose
it would be pertinent to mention that, at prom, when he got a decorative flower
on his plate he ate that as well. I rolled my eyes then as I had before.
The Cloisters has
another terrace that more directly overlooks the Hudson on an adjacent side of
the museum. That terrace really took us back in time. You exit out of an
ancient wooden door and onto an entirely stone veranda and see the river
beyond. I remember imagining that I was on the walls of a castle that my
friends and I were invading and that our foes were preparing to charge onto the
terrace and challenge us to a duel. Thinking back, I know that if that had been
the case my friends would have had my back against our fictional foes (except
Silenus, he’s a pacifist).
Being in the
Cloisters is like going into a castle, you feel as if a knight is around the
next corner going toe to toe with his greatest enemy. Or that you are a
princess walking around your expansive home. Aurora and I were quite fascinated
by the all the old doors in the Cloisters and decided immediately that each one
led to Narnia. In fact the whole rest of the day we said that every old door we
saw led to Narnia. I always hate leaving the Cloisters; it is like watching an
amazing movie (but better) about medieval times and then having the television
break halfway through, you feel unsatisfied and craving more.
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Before
I get to the second half of the trip I should explain something. As I said
before the Latin Club trip usually happens every other year. However I had some unfinished business at the museum
and I loved Latin, so I convinced Magistra to let my class go again our senior
year with that year’s juniors. It took a lot of convincing, especially
considering the fact that our Latin fund only had sixty bucks in it when I
asked. So my friend Daphne and I researched fundraising. I will say that there
were several (dozen) times where we almost didn’t go on the trip because we
didn’t think we would have the funds but we made it and got to go to NYC a
second time.
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The main part of
the Metropolitan Museum is as equally impressive as the Cloisters. The first
time we went for Latin Club I had been waiting all day to see the famous
“Washington Crossing the Delaware” painting by Emanuel Leutze, you see I am
rather fascinated by - obsessed with- the American Revolutionary War. To my
deep disbelief the painting was out getting restored. My friends tell me that I
nearly bawled my eyes out in the middle of the gallery. So the second year we
went my friends all made sure that I got to see Washington, and see him I did.
I had never realized how huge the painting really is, but it was somehow just
as impressive that my friends cared enough to make sure that I saw my painting.
Andromeda, Marian and Silenus made sure to take a picture of me in front of the
painting. I was beaming like the crazed school girl that I was.
Our second year we did something a little
different. You see another teacher, an English teacher, whom I will call, Goody
H, accompanies us every year. Goody H usually does a walking tour where she
takes a group of willing students up Fifth Avenue to Times Square. At first I
was not truly a willing student but most of my close friends were going so I
went. In this case peer pressure turned out to be a good thing. We breezed by a
hundred or so famous landmarks with Goody H narrating like a seasoned tour
guide. My friends and I saw the inside of the Plaza and Trump Towers, Central
Park, the FAO Schwartz store and Rockefeller Center. Our group must have looked
ridiculous running along in the throngs of people holding hands to stay
together. Goody H moved at a very brisk pace and we had a tough time keeping
up; because of this we had to dash forward every so often. With Silenus leading
the charge, imaginary sword brandished above his head, Andromeda, Marian,
Brit-Briqt (don’t ask), and I would sprint back to Goody H’s side shouting,
“For Narnia! For Aslan!” It was one of those, you-had-to-be-there sorts of
things.
As with the
Cloisters I was saddened to leave New York at the end of the day. Andromeda and
I planned the whole way home to return after graduation but we never went back.
Perhaps someday we will return and relive those times we had with Latin Club,
with Marian, Silenus, Magistra and others.
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People sometimes
ask me, “Ash, if you can’t speak the language fluently then what was the
point?” Well to that I say, first off that I can more effectively determine a
word’s meaning by using a Latin root then my non- Latin versed schoolmates.
Second, when I hear phrases like, carpe diem, bona fide, or caveat emptor, I
know what they mean. Latin is an essential part of a well-rounded linguistics
background and being a writing major I think that my Latin knowledge will serve
me well. Nevertheless the best things I
got out of Latin were the relationships. Magistra Perry became an essential
part of my day; I never dreaded but always looked forward to Latin class and
now in college I miss her dearly. Also several of my close friends took Latin
alongside and in grades below me; I would never give those times with them away.
We were all in a way part of this little secret society and had Latin names
that we chose for ourselves; I was friends with Andromeda, Ulysses, Silenus, Aurora,
Bacchus, and Daphne and I was Athena. Those trips to NYC and the hours spent in
Magistra Perry’s classroom with her and my friends will forever be engrained in
my mind, will forever shape me. I will always be a Latin kid; it will always be
a part of who I am. A small part of me will always be Athena, goddess of war
and of wisdom.
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