The Rime of the Ancient Mariner really did hit different compared to other stories we have read this year. Unlike the others, it uses psychologic tactics to not only take the readers attention, but to also keep them at nerve until the climax has passed. This did prove to be a very successful tactic since cliff-hangers (which happened here and there) occurred right at the end of a certain chapters creating a suspense forcing the reader to read on. This passage (like all the others) doesn’t hold a message, but before you say anything let me show you what I mean; books and passages don’t deliver messages, it just brings us information which we chose to interpret in many ways and take out a lesson out of them. In this exact passage I have learned that we must value the small and big things that happen throughout our little adventure (life), as well as you never realise how valuable someone is until they are gone. Unfortunately this lesson I have learned the hard way when I was younger, since my grandfather has passed away from cancer in 2019, as well as my dog passing away.
Due to my inability of working on memorizing the 5 stanzas (due to my sickness) I had to resort to procrastination (I understand this is a very bad habit but try not to use it often) in order to not fail this assignment. The whole memorization took no longer than a ferry from Vancouver Island to Mainland (1.35 hours), and I must say that I was comfortable with presenting these stanzas.
However, despite me practicing over and over, getting to the point of where I “not only got it right, but couldn’t get it wrong” (Mr. Herv Kejgal, old Music Teacher, a wise man who has taught me valuable lessons for life). This self confidence was soon dissipated as I was called up to the front of the class in seemingly no time, which has lead me to be nervous. The nervousness has caused me to forget one of the lines, which made me a little more nervous. I did however come to realize that I had to keep my tempo, which has allowed me to deal with the nervousness as all I did was take long, deep, breaths in order to calm myself down; and wouldn’t you know it, it worked! After such a rollercoaster I finally sat down with a strong sense of relief and belief in myself for next time:
As the overall lesson, I have now seen what procrastinating would do to me if I kept it up (quite a bit of students failed to memorize their scripts causing them to get a low mark, which is very unfortunate for them, hence why this post covers this topic.
–Iaroslav Serg Pyrozhok