This is my final blog post, and my final assignment as a student at UT. I chose this photo because I loved the environment that we are in and the knowledge we learned from it. Tikal was an amazing site, the one we spent the most time at, and is due its own praise. From examining the glyphs and imagery on the various stelae to standing on the platforms and climbing the pyramids to walking through the jungle to reach different parts of the site, the entire experience was both educational and phenomenological. As you walked through, you heard the wind through the trees and the wildlife, you felt the smoothness of the plaster road, you smelled the vegetation, and you saw the buildings rising from nature. Without this program, I never would have had the opportunity to experience these things, nor learn about how the ancient Maya went about creating it as a whole. I learned so much about how it was all constructed and why they made things the way they did.
However, that was not the only reason I chose this photo. I also chose it because it highlights all of my classmates and friends that were in the program. I only knew one person going into this class, but we all spent so much time together and had such an unforgettable time together that I’m glad that this was my last class as an undergrad: this is a group of friends that I can imagine myself continuing to talk to and spend time with for years to come, and I will be so grateful to this program for fostering that kind of connection between us all.
-Thomas Porter