After class, I nervously stood in line to speak to my professor. I somewhat rehearsed what I was going to say. It still sounded clumsy, but I myself was a clumsy underclassman. How would he react? Would he be upset or offended? It turns out, he didn’t care one bit. It was a big lecture hall. I was one of many faceless faces. He signed my withdrawal paperwork and I officially dropped Philosophy 101.
Months later, my parents wanted to have a word with me. They were trying to understand what was happening with my grades. Two Bs, one C and a W. And what the hell was a W? They weren’t happy at all. My first semester away at college and my grades looked like this. I was a straight A student in high school and this was taking a really bad turn.
If you don’t turn it around, we’re pulling you and you’re coming home.
I don’t blame them. Tuition wasn’t cheap and they were sacrificing a lot for us kids to get a college education. In my remaining years, I made sure I found a balance between academics and fun and I brought my grades up. Maybe if I didn’t drop my Philosophy 101 class, I could answer today’s prompt. I never knew the reverb of that W would cause a little collateral damage 40 years later.
So no dinner guest for me…
I started reading one person’s take on Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. Apparently, the author’s view evolved as he grew older.
When I first listened to Bohemian Rhapsody, I was in my teens, and I hated it. It unsettled me. It didn’t sound like rock at all. It wasn’t like the awesome Highlander soundtrack that had introduced me to Queen in the first place… wasn’t what I expected from the band.
Bohemian Rhapsody was weird. Bits of it sounded childish and silly. It had no structure, no rhythm, no story. It was psychedelic and confusing — all over the place. My idea of rock was strong riffs and epic choruses that stuck with you. But this song was annoying, its lyrics depressing.
As I matured, I came to appreciate Bohemian Rhapsody more and more, especially the lyrics. The more I delved into existential philosophy, the more I came to relate to the words, and later, the musical interpretation.
That actually sounded interesting, so I dug in. As he started analyzing the lyrics, it slowly dawned on me why I dropped Philosophy 101 in the first place. I found myself skipping sentences and then paragraphs. Ugh. Then I dropped the whole thing altogether. It was like déjà vu. The best part this time was it didn’t require a signature. So I learned I don’t have a big enough brain to hold my focus on the philosophical interpretation of the lyrics. I’m not going to lose any sleep over that.
One of the best impromptu singalongs of this song occurred at a Green Day concert – before the concert even started. Listen to the crowd sing Bohemian Rhapsody as they wait for the Green Day concert to begin. So cool they captured this on video.
If you can make 65,000+ people sing in sync 27 years after your death, you’re not a singer but a legend.
YouTube comment by vishwaswalhekar1983
They aren’t just singing the melody they’re singing the whole freaking song, guitar solo and all.
YouTube comment by JaylinPlessinger
You can do whatever you want with my music, just don’t make it boring.
Freddie Mercury
I’ll leave you with this last clip. Angelina Jordan was thirteen when she sang this rendition of this song. When I think of Bohemian Rhapsody, I come back and listen to the Green Day crowd or Jordan’s version. They both can’t be more different. Both are awe inspiring in their own unique ways.
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MyGenXerLife 
Philosophy 101 was a weird class. As a humanities student, I didn’t have the luxury of dropping it. It’s been thirty years since I graduated college and I still find it strange I earned a BS as an English major just because I went with secondary education English.
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I wish I was more interested in the subject. I am, but maybe not enough to dive in head first. I’m sorry you weren’t able to drop it. It was a snoozer for me.
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Studying philosophy was not my thing either. It’s unbelievable that a crowd could sing that song – acapella no less!
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I know. Plus a completely different generation. Pretty fun.
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I think you nailed something important for me. I find it difficult to focus while reading a critic’s take on a song, band, movie, TV show….one person’s point of view. I’d much rather formulate my own.
Philosophy is just one person’s personal take on the fundamentals of life. Big whoopdie doo. Again, I’d rather formulate my own interpretations, and then keep them to myself, thankyouverymuch.
Critics/philosophers–there’s definitely a DNA connection there somewhere.
In all seriousness, thank you for helping me to finally sort out something that I haven’t quite been able to make sense of…namely my dislike/distrust of philosophers and critics. And good for you that you were able to dodge a bullet in college. I’d like to have those interminably boring hours back.
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I’m with you. And thank you for validating my opinion. For a second, I thought I was yelling out to the world how ignorant I was!
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never too late to grab a book on philosophy & self study! 🙂
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The first time I ever heard Bohemian Rhapsody was when I watched Wayne’s World lol 😂
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Wayne’s World! Thanks for the reminder. Now I want to watch that again!
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Great vignette of College Daze 😂 I also struggled with Philosophy…ugh. It’s def a subject you need to have a particular brain type for appreciate. I always seemed to get an itch inside my head as the prof talked in circles about dense, strange concepts. A quick trip to the Rathskellar after class was always in order 🍺😎
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Thank you, my friend. Good to know I wasn’t the only one!
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I thought I would ace philosophy in college. It’s about thinking things out, right? I hated the teacher, I hated his thoughts, and I deliberately failed the final because we were allowed to toss out one grade from our transcript. Of course, when I was ready to graduate I learned we also lost the credits, so I was three credits short. No worries, I made it up and got that sheepskin.
Queen at Live Aid is the best live concert ever. There will never be another Freddie Mercury.
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I think a lot has to do with the professor teaching the course, too. A good professor can make any class interesting. And vice versa….
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I’ve just googled famous philosophers and also modern philosophers. I’d heard of a few of them but not enough to want to study them or what their views are. I would have been joining you and dropping the class!
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I’m so glad I’m not alone!
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