The Best Class I Took Was A Class I Hated
The most impactful class I’ve ever took at Berkeley was a class I hated. This class changed my life. Let me explain.
If you’re a Berkeley student in the College of Letters and Science (or 70% of all Berkeley undergrads), you’ll be taking one class for each of our seven “breadth requirements” to graduate. A breadth requirement is Berkeley’s version of general education. Berkeley students are exposed to seven different fields of study from doing our “breadth requirements”, ranging from international studies, physical sciences, to arts and literature. The class I’m writing about was a class I took for the arts and literature requirement.
The class was Japan 7A, or Premodern Japanese Literature. I chose to take this class freshman year because it fulfilled a breadth requirement and I thought I’d find old Japanese literature interesting. Well… guess what? I attended the first lecture and fell asleep. The semester was off to a rough start.
I found the breadth requirement system to be silly. I thought to myself: “why should I be taking a useless class that’s not in my major?” Japan 7A was what I considered to be a useless class. We mostly read “The Tales of Genji”, which I found incredibly boring. The main takeaway while reading that book was that Genji is some handsome prince that really likes cheating on his concubines. That plot didn’t appeal to me. I ended up spending most of the semester either playing New York Times word games, doing homework from other classes, or sleeping while in Japan 7A. I simply did enough reading and work to secure an A in the class.
I left the last lecture of Japan 7A feeling accomplished. I thought to myself: “Whew. Thank goodness I don’t need to take this class again.”
At the start of the next semester, I reflected on my previous semester’s classes. What did I learn from my classes? What was the purpose of my classes? These were the questions I asked myself. I wrote down the biggest takeaways I got from each class I took, and finally got to Japan 7A.
I pondered about Japan 7A for a solid 10 minutes. I thought about what was the main theme of the class and how I could use what I learned to help me in the future. My mind was blank, but then I came to a realization. This class wasn’t really about Japanese Literature but it was about finding beauty everywhere.
During lecture, my Japan 7A professor had us read excerpts of the “Tale of Genji” and every lecture he explained how that excerpt related to beauty.
I initially thought he wanted us to find stereotypical beauty within the characters. Yes, Genji is handsome. Yes, his concubine is hot. Yes, cherry blossoms are beautiful trees. During the class, I only thought about beauty from a surface level. I looked back at the literary situations we had to find beauty in from that class. We explored the beauty in tragedy, the beauty in death, the beauty in people, the beauty in reunion, and more.
My professor had us find beauty in what’s typically considered ugly and dark. For example, we analyzed how multiple tragedies and deaths within Genji’s life changed him to become a more moral person. The professor was trying to get us to understand that there is beauty and good in every situation.
Once I realized this, I realized this class was life-changing. It only took 6 months from the start of Japan 7A for me to realize this.
There is so much beauty in the world. Tragedy is beautiful because it makes us more resilient, empathetic, and usually turns us into more decent human beings. For example, the character arc of Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender exemplifies the beauty of tragedy phenomenally.
Even things like death can be beautiful. If we were to live forever, we would likely not value our time with others and on Earth because it would be an infinite resource. The knowledge of an inevitable end to your life enables us to treasure the moments with those we care for. I think that’s beautiful. Tragedy and death are universally draining subjects to think about, but when we find the beauty in them, it is easier to grasp and to accept.
Finding beauty in everything, whether it is tragic or euphoric, makes living a much more pleasant experience. It has made all aspects of my life easier to process. Finding everything beautiful has put me at ease when times are uncertain. It has made me feel that life has more meaning than I previously thought.
Japan 7A changed my life and my perspective in anything I encounter. Looking back, I can’t believe I hated this class so much, but I’m glad I found the beauty in it.