Raphael, School of Athens, 1509-1511

By SAI GONDI

To Libby, Ellie, Megan, Reid, Emma, and the newbies,

I am sure we all shared similar sentiments when first entering class. The knowledgable veterans struck fear into our barren minds. There was so much to learn, so much to absorb, and we were behind. Now as veterans, we have successfully applied last year's acquired fundamentals to become even better art historians this year. Though we clearly have much to discover, walking into Art History as a second year sparked opposite emotions. We came in as knowledgable leaders, participators, and most importantly, confident students unafraid of being wrong.

We rolled into class like Aristotle and his colleagues in Raphael's School of Athens, eager for another adventure. So why am I saying all this? Well, I wanted to appreciate those who started their journey with me last year. We have come a long way intellectually and personally in regard to Art History. Thanks for continuing this adventure with me again, and all you challenge me to dig deeper and see things with new perspective each day. To the first year historians, its going to be okay. Blog posts will become routine. And with experience instinctively seeing symbols, patterns. will come easy to you, and one day you will return to class like the immortalized philosophers above. Also, thanks Mr. Luce for being our Plato, teaching us and dealing with my disgraceful Rothko jokes and religious holiday puns. To Art History 2016-2017, you are all greatly appreciated.