Event Analysis 11/29

Last year I volunteered at the Kids in Crisis Agency. Throughout the year, we became acquainted with many local kids in the area. The agency aimed to find fun; enriching activities to engage young kids with troubled family situations. Each month, the group would plan an event for the children. My experience working with the children in the agency relates to William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

In the play, there is an evident love triangle between the main characters. Duke Orsino is constantly trying to garner love from Olivia.  However, Olivia is simultaneously in love with Cesario/Viola. Both of these characters experience a sense of unattainable love, as they are unable to be with the ones they desire. The Duke declares that he is craving “excess” love in the first act. The audience can see that the amount of love he desires will ultimately make him sick. This situation reminded me of a few of the kids in the agency during one of the events. During our Valentine’s Day party, one of the young boys, Matthew, proclaimed he had a crush on one of the girls. Over the past few months, Matthew started to open up to me about his crush. He informed me of his plan to give her a Valentine prior to the event and was genuinely excited for his big moment. He gave her one of the store-bought cartoon Valentines with a Hershey kiss attached with scotch tape. After he gave her his token of his love, she told him she liked one of the other boys. Heartbroken, Matthew was forced to accept this feeling of unattainable love. Luckily, in response, all of the high school girl volunteers offered to be Matthew’s valentine. This situation allowed us to observe a sense of unattainable love similar to the situations in Twelfth Night.

I really enjoyed this class. I found the class discussions to be consistently interesting and intriguing. This class definitely opened my eyes to Loyola’s Jesuit values through the many different events offered each week. I feel that my trip to the Art Museum was a great learning experience. I think it’s important to go out of your comfort zone and see the real world through a new, mature lens. This class has definitely prepared me for my courses in the future.