Ask an Honors Student
- Megan Northey
- Hometown: Brier, WA
- Major: Kineseology
- Minor: Sports Psychology
- Ask Megan at:
northem@students.wwu.edu
- What's best about Honors?
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The relationships that you form with your honors professors are pretty amazing. Since the classes are so small, you really get to know one another in a capacity that extends beyond the classroom. I have gone to all my honors professors at one point or another and talked to them about different situations and received advice that was more typical of a close friend than a professor.
- Your first Western "WOW" moment?
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In Honors 106 we were reading Jose Borges Ficciones, which made little to no sense to me as I read it in preparation for the discussion. However, once the professor started explaining the meaning behind all of Borges’ stories, how each one represented a greater theme of the circular pattern of time or colonialism or religion, it was as if the book was translated into my language. I came to enjoy exploring Ficciones and count it among my favorite works.
- Outside the classroom?
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Most of my extracurricular time is taken up by my participation on the women’s crew team. I started rowing my freshman year, not knowing anyone on the team and wondering why I was waking up at 4:30 am. As the year progressed, my rowing improved and the girls became a second family. Not only did I make really close friends but I am proud to call myself a member of the most successful sports team in NCAA history and a national champion.
- What is the best book you've read lately?
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Over the summer I read the classic Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard while reading! While the characters’ ineptitude supplied most of the humor, it also fueled the sense that they were trapped with no way out of a lose-lose situation. Heller’s sobering observations of human behavior bring to light the absolute madness of society that we have accepted as sane.
- What is your favorite memory of WWU?
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A couple honors friends and I climbed Sehome Arboritum on a dark December night during finals week. The hill was incredibly muddy, but that only added to the fun as we scrambled to the top. Once there we discovered a rope swing and decided on a whim to try it out. The rope swing took us off an embankment, flying through trees as we yelled like crazy. It was exhilarating!