This was long thought to be the only portrait of William Shakespeare that had any claim to have been painted from life, until another possible life portrait, the Cobbe portrait, was revealed in 2009. The portrait is known as the ‘Chandos portrait’ after a previous owner, James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos. It was the first portrait to be acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in 1856. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Consider this post the flip side of my last post.  I figure that while my favorite subjects may divulge certain things about me, my least favorite subjects will do the same.  In fact, it may show even more.

Biology

The only science that I couldn’t stand, biology was a learning experience for me.  It was the first subject in school in which I got less than a B+.  It was a struggle for me – I studied hard for it, but it didn’t make sense to me.  The problem, I believe, is that it is more memorization of facts than derivation of ideas built upon the basics.  In other words, it is the least mathematical of the sciences that I have studied.  If you read my last post, you’ll recall that I have a mathematical mind, so it stands to reason that I would have trouble with biology.  I wish I had understood more about biology, but, at the time, it was just this far beyond my complete grasp.

Creative Writing

This was another difficult subject for me.  At the time, when I was in high school, I hated to write – especially about something that I didn’t quite understand.  Even if I enjoyed the topic about which I wrote, I just wanted to get done with it.  What I learned from this class were concepts such as opening paragraphs, bodies, closing paragraphs, summaries… no, let me correct myself.  What this class taught me was to add extraneous adjectives, adverbs, and clauses to reach the required word count.  It also taught me proper spelling and grammar, because the teacher would deduct points for mistakes.  The fact that I have not one, but two blogs shows that I have overcome my aversion to writing.  In fact, I quite like to write now.

British/American/World Literature

Related to the above paragraph, I couldn’t stand these classes.  Part of it was because we were required to write papers about the literature, but the biggest reason was because I hated to read!  In fact, I hated to read so much that I would take notes during class about whatever I was supposed to be reading, then write my papers based on the notes.  Not the best, or most intelligent, strategy, but it must have worked – I passed the classes.  Oddly enough, just like writing, I changed later in life, and now I love reading.  One of my favorite electives in college was Shakespeare, and I still enjoy reading his works.

Conclusion

Of these three subjects, two of them have made 180s, and now I love them.  The third, biology, I wish I understood better.  It’s funny, but people can change.  At the time, I would never have thought it possible that I would one day love to read and write.  Thank God I have.

How about you?  What were some of your least favorite subjects?  Has your opinion changed since then?

This post is for the September Back To School Blog Challenge, hosted by Matt Conlon on Join Something.

September Back To School Blog Challenge