I always wanted to be a journalist and was dedicated to socio-political issues - I was doing the work that most people consider pragmatic. When I found out that I was to learn Latin and Ancient Culture at school, I was seriously considering moving to another one. At that time I would consider Latin as a useless dead language and a class that would make me waste four hours of my life a week. My attitude changed slightly as the class actually began. I could see how passionate my teacher was about his subject. Hence, I would then say that Latin is fun, but useless. However, I decided to participate in a high school competition on Latin and Ancient Culture (easier college enrollment being my only motivation). The side effect of the preparations was that my reluctance turned into fascination. My teacher's passion turned out to be contagious and now, having studied Latin for two years, I want to be a Classics major. Making the transition from the down-to-earth things that I had been doing to academic research and translations of ancient texts was hard, but now I cannot imagine my life without the second. I live and study in Poland, in Europe, so Classics are the basis of my society and culture. I fairly enjoy finding the parallels between us and the ancient societies. I particularly enjoy examining the rhetoric. The moment when I made a final decision that Classics is what I want to study was when we were translating Cicero's "Pro Archia" speech in class. It seemed amazing to me how the author of "Hortensius" and other ancient authors mastered the spoken and written language. Recently I have been reading with fascination more on Late Antiquity and Early Christanity, with an emphasis on St. Augustine.
To everyone who studies Latin at school and hates the hard work that needs to be put in learning its grammar: clench your teeth and keep mowing forward. Your hard work will quickly pay off, when you are eventually ready to read original texts. At the beginning Ancient Studies may not seem "sexy" in the modern digitalized word. But the more you study, the more interesting they seem to be!
Curate, ut valeatis!