[Rahmani’s Intellectual Home] – Ryan Chen

After having read Rahmani’s Chronicles of a Once Pessimistic College Freshman, I believe Rahmani’s intellectual home is in fact, CityTech. After all, Rahmani had his entire wall of perception obliterated at CityTech. He once thought that he was an intelligent, model student. However, after one particular English class, he had been reformed. He had come to understand different viewpoints to the same content (e.g. believing that in no possible way could Hemingway be sexist because he was a great author, only to be proven wrong by facts and logic). As he states in his anecdote, “The classroom became ink, penetrating the water, which was my mind, adding new colors, creating something new, something I alone could never hope to create.” At this moment, Rahmani admits that he is not the one with exceedingly superior intellect in the classroom, but all minds in said classroom come together to become the exceedingly superior intellect. This is why I believe CityTech is Rahmani’s intellectual home, as it allows Rahmani to break free from his own ego and discover what it means to share ideas in a melting pot.