By Ben Payne
Hello everyone, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ben, I’m an Aerospace Engineering
major from Peachtree City, GA. I’ve had a long history here at Georgia Tech, starting classes in the Fall of 2009 with a couple breaks in between. But I’m set to graduate in the Fall of 2018 assuming all goes well, so I’m almost done. My major obligation this summer other than this class is my full time job. I work as a freight agent for an auto transport broker based in my hometown. So I’m working Monday through Friday, as well as some Saturdays. Immediately following class, I drive (or ride my motorcycle) over to my sister’s place in Decatur and start working until 10pm.
One of the major reasons it has taken me this long to graduate has been English classes. Earlier in my college career, I would sign up for an English course, become interested in the early stages of the course, then fall behind in coursework and attendance, and, because of the mandatory attendance policy in place, be forced to drop the class. I believe I took at least five different ENGL 1101 classes before finally passing in the Fall of 2017. And even that one was close. I hope to rid myself of some of my bad procrastination habits this semester, although it may be difficult, as I am also working full time while taking this class. I do enjoy parts of communication; mostly reading about things I’m interested in, but the other side of communication has always been a struggle for me. I’m great at editing things, whether they be writing or visual, but producing things from scratch usually makes my head spin not knowing where to start. I’m hoping to improve my writing, making it more fluid and understandable, as well as my verbal communication, as getting my thoughts out correctly the first time has proved a struggle for me in the past. I’m also excited to work on electronic communication, with these blog posts and tweets, as well as the historical annotation project.
Prior to this class, I had never seen a Broadway musical. In high school, a trip to New York for an academic tournament sent us to a production of Stomp off-Broadway, but I’ve never seen a major musical. I have listened to the Wicked soundtrack from start to finish once after a friend’s daughter saw the play and shared it with me.
I first heard of Hamilton in early 2016, when I was planning a trip to New York to visit my cousin at Columbia. I was interested in seeing something on Broadway, and she suggested it, but also said that tickets were basically impossible to come by. Time ending up slipping away on that trip, and I never went to see a play. I guess it wasn’t meant to be, but I am glad to be studying Hamilton now, other than the fact that the songs are stuck in my head all day everyday now after listening to them all multiple times
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