I was frustratingly stagnant, staring at my computer screen. This was to be my last full semester in college, and I wanted to explore more that the university had to offer other than engineering classes. I had been scouring the class catalogue for an hour trying to find a class that I would enjoy, but would not consume my schedule. Everything I was considering, anthropology to technology classes, were all structured like my previous courses: quizzes, tests, final exam.

Then I scrolled upon an RTF course that I had not seen before, nor heard anything about; it was simply entitled “DEATH.” So I did some background checking to see what the class was all about: reading, discussions, making stuff. Plus, you didn’t need to be an RTF major to take it. How great did that sound? No tests. But more importantly was that I could “make stuff” in any form that I preferred. The class seemed revolutionary. And I had a huge interest in making films. I know that being a Mechanical Engineering major that it seems odd, but I had already created two short films and desperately wanted to continue my hobby. So this class seemed like the elixir to cure all of my registration ailments.

“DEATH” has easily been my favorite college class to date. At the beginning of the semester we had open discussions (about 3 hours long) about anything that related to death. As the semester progressed, we were asked to read several different writings:

The Tibetan Book of the Dead

The Egyptian Book of the Dead

The Psychedelic Experience

Near Death Experiences

The readings were followed by
open discussions during class.
The discussions were not always
polite or guided, which was one
of the best parts of the class. It
allowed everyone to speak there
mind and put there inner thoughts
on a table for everyone to examine.
The conversations always had
several different points of view
that it was a wonderful change of
pace from the closed-minded
discussions often had in other
classes and on televised debates.
People came to express their opinionAND learn from the opinion of others, not just to parade their own thoughts around.

The rest of the class was spent creating projects to be displayed to the rest of the students. Three projects throughout the semester, which were to be completed outside of class time. The projects had to relate to death in some way, shape, or form; and hopefully they would express or be derived from class readings and discussions. They also had to portray adequate effort; you couldn’t just throw things together at the last minute. The projects built in awesomeness. The first was kind of like an experiment; the second was supposed to be a step up; and the third was your opus.

Now, after completing the course, I can say that I learned a lot about death, people, and making films. A superb class for anyone to venture into.