Most may not realize but Latin is around us every day in one way or another. And a lot of the time you wouldn't even know its there unless you took a Latin class. One way I've seen Latin outside of school is at the mall. The store Hollister has a phrase called "carpe now" that is advertised a lot around the store and I only noticed it for the first time a few months ago. When I first saw this I remembered the motto, Carpe Diem, by Horace that we learned in Latin in 7th grade. The phrase carpe diem translates to seize the day. So when I saw this I was like oh they are trying to say seize/get these items now. Another time Latin has helped me in school is when we have been reading the Odyssey by Homer in English class this year. In the Epic, the books/chapters are labeled by Roman Numerals and if it wasn't for Latin I wouldn't have been able to recognize any number after 5. I learned this skill from Latin in 7th and 8th grade when we would have to draw sticks with roman numerals to find out what seat to sit in. Now I know when she says to look for chapter 21 I know to go to the page that has XXI on it. Another time Latin has helped me with the Odyssey is the story between Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. In the Odyssey, it mentions their relationship and how it taught Odysseus to be loyal. Though when I originally read that passage I didn't really understand what it was trying to say about their relations. Then a few days after we read that passage, in Latin class we started talking about messed up family lines and got on the topic of Clymenestra and Agamemnon and Dr.Morgan explained to us their story, and the Odessy suddenly made a lot more sense. Another time I've seen Latin outside of school is when I went to go see the movie Black Christmas with a friend over the break. The movie was about all these sorority girls getting killed around campus when everyone leaves for Christmas break. When I saw this movie I had remembered the vocab word soror, sororis and how it translates to sister in Latin. Then I realized that that is one of the places the word sorority comes from because it is a sisterhood. This movie also had a lot of Greek and Roman references throughout it. One of the last examples of when I saw was in the comic I read called Lore Olympus. It's based on the story of Hades and Persephone but with a twist. When I first heard about the comic I was like wait I know this story because previously in Latin we did a reading comprehension worksheet on it. I learned that Hades tricked Persephone into staying in the underworld with him longer with a pomegranate, so when I saw a comic based on it I was really interested and decided to read it. Knowing about the story already gave me an advantage because I already knew a lot of the characters the author mentioned. Overall I'm really glad I chose to take Latin because it has not only helped me in school but out of school. I think this is one reason why it's so important to learn new languages because you start to pick up on things you wouldn't have known before. Especially Latin because a lot of the English language is based off Latin and people use Latin mottoes all the time without even realizing it.
-Samantha Ward
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