Shakespearean - JayTim - Camp NaNoWriMo - July 2017

Chapter 16 - Bigger

It was Monday again and Jason was so not ready for this. Though he hadn't procrastinated once, he was still up until the early hours of the morning working on perfecting his essay for this week. It had been an incredibly tough assignment for him, more so because of the topic, but he was sure that everyone in the class had probably struggled with this one. Since it followed logic that the difficulty would only progress as the class went on, Jason winced as he realized that this was only week three in a 15 week course. He had a very long road ahead of him.

He arrived early, as was his usual, but instead of greeting Clark and making conversation, he used his time to read back over his essay. He knew he couldn't really edit it, seeing as it was a printed word document and any changes he made would be obvious and detract from the professional look of the assignment, but he thought that maybe if he read through it and was satisfied then it would give him some peace of mind.

He wasn't satisfied. At all.

He sighed in resignation and looked up to see Clark watching him with a look of concern. "You look tired, Jason. You doing okay?"

Jason faked a smile and nodded. "Yeah, I was just up really late working on this." He waved his essay for Clark to see before setting it back on the desk. "They're just going to get harder, aren't they?"

Clark's lips twisted as he thought about how to answer for a moment. "Maybe. Some students will have an easier time after this, because now that they have all of their information and they better understand their topic, they'll have an easier time writing the future essays about it. Some topics, though, become more difficult the more you understand them and know about them."

"Why?" Jason thought that maybe he already knew the answer, but he still wanted to hear Clark's explanation for it.

"Well, I think that's because, with some topics, the more you know about it the deeper a connection you feel with the topic, and the more you understand it, the more you care about the issue. Human Trafficking is an especially difficult topic to know about. William Wilberforce once said, 'You may choose to look the other way, but you may never again say you did not know.' The more you know about that issue, the more you care about the victims, and the more you hate the sick people who do this to them. It makes sense that people would get tired of the topic after a certain amount of... exposure."

Jason nodded his understanding as Clark called the class to order. He agreed with Clark's answer, but he wasn't sure that was his main reason for particularly hating this topic. "Alright, everybody. Luckily for you, nobody will have to read their assignments aloud." The class gave a small cheer. "I'll just ask the class a few questions and then, since I'm required to teach you about kinds of journalism other than written, I have a documentary for you to watch." The class cheered again. "First question: how many of you felt you did manage to do a decent job of representing opposing sides with no bias?"

One of the cons of sitting in the front row was that you couldn't see anybody else in the class when people were raising their hands. You had to turn awkwardly, and obviously, to look over your shoulder at everybody else. No knowing how many others agreed with you was difficult under normal circumstances, but this topic, and assignment, had Jason wired. He swallowed thickly and raised his hand.

Nodding once, Clark began pacing slowly back and forth in front of the podium. "And how many of you found it to be difficult to do this assignment, whether or not you succeeded?" Just from the sounds of weight being shifted and clothing rustling, Jason could tell a whole lot more people raised their hands this time around, Jason among them.

Clark nodded again and paused for a moment, presumably to take in the information. "How many of you feel you have a better grasp of your topic after this assignment?"