Episode 6: Simbo Ejecta

[music] Thawai Tha listeners and welcome to the sixth episode of Vux Classica. I'm Albert Dink. I'm Yushan Vostodyv. And I'm Luke Nettern. Today we are talking with Simbo Ajeta. The part of the Illinois Junior Classical League, or ILJCL, was the console and dickies for her school's Classics Club, mainly helping out with her caretoment team at state convention. She went into state convention all four years of high school and had a blast. She is now a dual major in science pre-professional studies in Classics at the University of Notre Dame. Simbo, thank you so much for joining us today. Yes, of course. It's so nice to be here with you guys today. Yeah, so before we dive into the Latin, we always like to ask our guests about their hobbies and interests outside of their discovery, the Classical World. Yeah, one of my biggest hobbies is singing. And so, I mean, that isn't really involved in my, you know, class journey. But I love to sing. I sing in my church choir. And then I also love to read, which is one of the biggest reasons why I did get into the Classics and decided to go on this journey. But those are two favorite things to do. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got introduced to the Classics? And like, what made you decide to get involved in from there? Yeah, I feel like this is like a basic answer. But I read Percy Jackson fourth grade. I think, and that's like the moment that I became obsessed with Classics and like getting into Greek mythology and read every single book like five times in like all the series, whatever. And so that was like the beginning for me where I was like, wow, I'm really interested in this. Like, I want to learn more. And you know, I ended up taking Latin. Just because I loved Greek mythology so much in the books. And then four years of Latin. I also took Greek on top of that. After I think reading here is of Olympus, which is where I more of the Greek aspect came in and yeah. I feel like that's such a canon experience to introduce by Percy Jackson. I know that was the same for me. Yes, almost every single like JCL person I've met or like lion students. It's always I read Percy Jackson and got interested. Yeah. What made you go from like it being interested in like mythology and Percy Jackson to going to Latin? Like, did you take another language before Latin? No, I didn't at all. I honestly, I can't even like remember what like the jump was between that. But I didn't take any language in middle school. And then I don't know. I just decided to take Latin. And I haven't regretted its sense. I don't know. Do you like when you started taking Latin. Was it because specifically you were just interested in mythology and you want to learn more about that? Or was there something else like, did you know a little bit about history or grammar or like derivatives? Or was it mostly during by mythology? Right. So for me when I started Latin, it was basically ground zero. I mean, I knew mythology from like reading Percy Jackson and just like basic research I had done. But I didn't really know much about grammar derivatives. Like nothing really Latin related. I just was interested after reading Percy Jackson. I was, I don't know, I thought that it was the logical next step, I don't know. But I didn't really know much about history. It was never my like, like niche interest, if you go, yeah. That's fair history is not not for me as well. Now, now I'd love to talk about JCL since a lot of what you have done has been in the JCL, specifically the Saint Ignatius chapter of the Illinois JCL. What was that like? Yeah, that was like one of the best parts of my high school experience, you know, coming into high school. I didn't really like know that many people at my high school, whatever. And classic school was the first club I joined and it was just an immediate family and like welcoming community for me. I met like almost all of my best friends through classics club and soft more year is when I started holding the leadership position within the club. So first I was the I delay, which was the person in charge of communications and emailing, making sure that the club received all the information they needed. And then for the next two years after that is when I was consulate in Dickies, which is when I had more of a role in, you know, planning for different events we had. We had like Latin days and other many convention style events for our students there at Ignatius. And then that's also when I started to get more involved with the JCL, helping plan for spirit and all the chance costumes. Making sure we had a, you know, a good size delegation to go. So we had, you know, all the spirit and energy going in to our GA meetings. The Kurtoman was also, like you mentioned, a big part of how I was involved with the JCL. So I played Kurtoman, you know, we didn't really have a huge Kurtoman team. So it was me and some of my other friends who ran the Kurtoman team and you know, make sure that we had a good showing out, you know, like even if we didn't know much, you know, we showed up, tried our best. I would say my favorite part was always just like, when we would expect not to like know much and like boom, like we heard something that we knew from class. I was like, wow, I know this and we'd get a point, you know, it was just nice to enjoy something and meet people through Kurtoman and through the JCL and Classics Club community at Ignatius. It was, it was really the community that made it for me. Yeah. You have a big program at Ignatius, like what was the overall size of your school's like planning program? We had, I'd say we had like 60, 70, like people signed up and like on our email list, but we'd have around like 20 to 30 people showing up consistently for our meetings. And we'd have the same like around 20 people going to our JCL state convention. Do you have a special lies to area for Kurtoman, or did you do pretty much everything? If you can guess, it was mythology, mythology was kind of my area. But also like after like learning a bit more lie in poetry and the figurative like devices was something that I was good at. So it was a Greek mythology and kind of poetry like grammar or devices for me. Do you like, is there something about mythology that you like you really like what, what is your draw to mythology? Because like personally, I've never really been a myth person, but I also never read Percy Jackson. So I don't have that background. I know, I know it's, it's on the to-do list, but I am curious though, because like, when I'm, I'm mostly like a grammarian and like a velcab guy. And the reason I like that so much is because there's so many like connections to the modern world. So I'm curious like for myth, like, do you see that or is there something else? Yeah, like I said, one of my like biggest hobbies is reading. And so with reading, I just love the story building. And yes, like with myths, I can see it, the lessons that we learn from myths and, you know, just like the character. The character like building and also just like development happening in the Greek myths is very relatable to our lives today. I feel like and the lessons we can learn from that, but also what we can learn about the people back then and their values was really interesting to me. And also just being somebody who loves reading. I just enjoyed like the world building and the storytelling of the myths. It sounds that there is a lot to learn a lot that you really liked about the classics. And it seems like it does have a big impact on your life, but I do like, I do want to ask as well then, like, has there been any challenges or robots in your JSL experience or just, I guess maybe even in general like relating to the classics. And if so, like what helped you get motivated and keep going. Yeah. So like I said, I've never held like a board position on our IEL JCL state board, but I think sophomore year I had run for. His history, history honest, history honest, something like that. But I ran and I didn't win, but I wouldn't say it was a huge roadblock. It was just I was kind of a scared sophomore wasn't really like, didn't know much about the JCL community yet. And it was kind of just like hard to put myself out there and you know, and meet all these people and you don't do not come and all the events and stuff and then not win. But I got over pretty quickly just like, because at the end of the day for me, it wasn't about having like something to put on the resume for college. And you know, build myself up, but just being there part of the community and having a good time with my friends and all the new people I was meeting. So I really didn't let that stop me from enjoying convention and you know, allowing that to make me bitter about the experience. I just, you know, moved on from that and enjoyed all the other great things happening. I'm curious why a historian or history, history honest like is there something particular about that one. So for our chapter history honest was the photographer, but also they ran the chapter newspaper. So he is or something I remember was called and I do enjoy writing and like I was saying Greek mythology and the storytelling. So I looked forward to revamping that a little bit because I don't think many people read it. And so that was the reason why I decided to turn for that position. So you mentioned running for state office sophomore year. Did that ever cross your mind again in junior year? No, I didn't not again. I mean, I think at first I did it just, you know, to have something to put on the resume. And I mean, I really think after reflecting that was the biggest reason and I was getting more involved with my classics club at my own school. So I just never really thought about running again because I had a lot of other. Like stuff to do priorities. But yeah, that's totally fair. From your, from your St. Ignatius chapter, were there any leadership lessons or habits that you learned? Whether from running meetings or organizing events or rallying people that you find yourself using now or in other parts of life? Yeah. So being a leader of classics club, you know, was super fun. I enjoyed it, but it did have, you know, it's ups and downs, like trying to rally people to, you know, sign up for our biggest event was Latin days, which was an event where we introduce like six through eighth graders to the world of classics. Like, so we would have Cretaman, Mithrin, Akman's, chariot racing, just different events for them. And, you know, we really needed to have a lot of volunteers from our club to run this event because it was huge. We'd host about 100, yeah, 90 to 100 middle schoolers every year. So, you know, trying to kind of wrangle people into volunteering for that. And just like, you know, being empathetic with people when it was tough some days to get people's attention during club meetings and stuff. And it just taught me that, you know, people are having rough days going through different things and just understanding that, you know, people are busy sometimes or just dealing with their own things. To just be more cognizant of what other people are going through, but also putting myself out there more and, you know, putting my foot down and being like, we need to do this. We need to get this done instead of, you know, backing off a little bit and being afraid to upset people. So, just having that balance there, which is still something like I'm kind of working on. I wouldn't say shy, but I'm not a very confrontational person. So, I think just from leading classics club, it's taught me to, you know, be like firm with my words, but also understand that sometimes people are going through stuff and just have that balance there. That's really, I think I really do agree with that. Just personally, like, at least coming from a very small school. It is very hard to keep the club going and getting everyone's attention and making sure that, like, everyone's really putting their best foot forward into it. Are there, like, did you bring your high school experience? Did you have, like, any other, like, clubs or organizations that you were a part of that, like, you could apply skills from your, like, classics experiences into those or skills from those into your Latin club at your school? Honestly, I don't think I did. Like, I was very involved in classics club. I was also on the board for, like, our African club, but that club was way smaller and we just, like, didn't do much stuff. So, it was mainly classics club for me, yeah. Okay, I had another question about Latin days. That sounds fascinating. So you'll have chariot races and re-enactments. Like, Latin days, I would say was the highlight of, like, being a leader on classics club and it was just so fun. You know, organizing that we would paint our own chariots and, like, we would have, we'd pick our own groups, have people, you know, in the chariot, running it, coming up with the design, painting it, making mid-re-enactments, you know, like, out of all the, like, numerous meds that, like, I'm sure these middle schoolers have never heard of and just, like, letting them have a good time, you know. So, classics club, I would, I mean, Latin days, I would say was a blast. And there were some accidents, like, every year, I would say there was at least one person falling out of a chariot every year and I almost got run over by one last year. But, like, it's just such a good time and there's just a lot of good memories with Latin days and classics club in general for me. No, yeah, totally relatable. I mean, at our school, we'd do something every year called Trigon and it's an event that's, like, really hyped up. They have preliminary matches and then we have our final three that come play in front of the entire school. Wait. It's Trigon the thing, like, standing in the triangle with the ball. Okay, I also did that and it would get all competitive, like, it was fun. But that's so cool. So, I guess my question for you now is, what do you think makes the JCL such a unique community, especially compared to other organizations? Yeah, like I was saying before, the JCL community, you know how they say the friendly hand, the JCL, like, that was the thing that stood out to me the most. And just seeing, like, my friends and other, you know, like, academic organizations or communities like mine, like, it was just super competitive and it was everybody at each other's throats, which was a very different environment from the JCL community that I had seen. So I would say that's what made it stand out to me. It was just people coming together for true love of classics, you know. I would say my favorite night would be like the first night syncing random songs, karaoke with people I never met before, having gladiator fights, you know, and just meeting people through these experiences instead of, you know, being stressed out about having to, I don't know, do some trial, like mock trial or something, you know, it's just having a good time and enjoying the company of people around you, which is what made it different for me. So then, like, on the theme of, like, I guess, application, which we were on earlier about, like, leadership positions, how was the classics influence your view of just the world around you generally, like, whether that's in your day to day life, or I guess, even especially in your educational path, as one of your majors is science, pre-professional studies. Yeah, something that I've really learned from classics about, like, the world around me is that you kind of need a balance, like I was talking about earlier, of like, yes, the more factual scientific stuff, like, I am a pre-med scientific professional studies major, but also, I really enjoy the more humanities side of learning and, you know, reading. And so, it's just a balance for me of, yes, like, the facts around us, but also understanding that the emotions that go on within us and, you know, just the human mind and how we operate in function, which is the reason why I picked those two, like, majors specifically, because I do want to, you know, grow up, be a doctor, help people, but also understanding. The more emotional side of people and why we function the way we do what we think and act the way we do, which is something that I really enjoy in classics is that, even though it was the, all the works of literature that we read, like, catalyst, this arrow, avid, they're from so long ago, but they truly really do apply to our lives still today. Like, I remember reading Catalyst's poems and stuff, and they were just such great themes that still apply to our life today, and we just have such long conversations during class about, you know, how we related to that in our own lives. And I think it's just so important to understand that aspect of, you know, humanity, but also. You know, the more factual side and how, you know, we're alive in here. Wow, you, I really relate to what you just said, because I'm in a very similar path where I want to go on with a premedical path, and I want to do like the classics and college as well, and it's like, I'm trying to expand my understanding of different fields and different areas that like, I can be more empathetic and understanding and knowledgeable. And I really agree with what you said about, especially about like the Catalyst stuff, I think it's really interesting, because we're actually doing that right now with Catalyst and Horace. And like, yeah, there are some things that they say that are like, yeah, no, but there's also a lot of things that are really deeply philosophical, and I just, it's really interesting how much meaning you can get behind text like from someone who died like thousands of years ago. And it's just like a lot of people have this misunderstanding of like, Latin, not really a spoken language for a lot of people, for most people who are learning Latin, it's just your translating a lot of the time. And so if like you're not talking to people, you're not getting the know people, you're not understanding people with the language, but really you are because of, again, like through poetry, through all these different like literary techniques, which you might just see as just methodical and precise. It conveys a lot of deep meaning, and there's so much meaning you can get from archaeology, from culture, from history, from mythology, like thinking about how people make sense of the world around them. So I really agree with what you said about like kind of understanding through the classics, which is something that I really found really cool. Yeah, thank you for saying that. I mean, I think a lot of people think the two are like polar opposites, but I think when they come together, they just work, you know, the more rational side of human thought and the more emotional side. They work to just like fully develop our concept of who we are and what we feel and who we like what we were meant to do. And what you were saying before about, you know, Latin being a dead language, kind of like people say, I mean. And, you know, we don't really speak it to each other when we study Latin in the classics, but through the things that we do study and learn and the literature that we do read, we connect through that, you know, it isn't more of a speaking and like communicating through a different language, but connecting through our common human experience and what we feel and what we go through. That's awesome. So to shift to another direction, what advice would you give to students who are just starting a studying the classics or who might feel intimidated by joining JCL. The advice I would give them is honestly just jump in head first, I know it's so intimidating at first, like my first convention personally, I was terrified. Just the sheer amount of people there and the chanting, oh my gosh, like I did not know what was going on for a general assembly walking in and everybody in costumes, like chanting for 20 plus minutes, you know, it's just. It can be scary at first and I know a thing in my school is that like people thought it was like too nerdy and didn't want to be like perceived that way. And so I would say just not be ashamed and not be scared. And if you're genuinely interested in it, that's something that you want to get involved in, just go for it, you know, like at the end of the day, like. These are some of the most friendly as people you'll ever meet. I promise everybody from what I learned just wants to, you know, get to know you better and all the upperclassmen want to give you advice and help you, you know, grow in your class journey and academic journey. And also, like don't be afraid of being judged, you know, like it's a part of who you are. It's something you're interested in. Like it's something that gives you joy. So be proud of that and just get involved. Yeah. That's awesome. So to shift to our last segment, Caledize and TTI hot takes in this segment, our guest, Simbo will present a hot take to us. She will then explain to us the reasoning and logic behind her argument. Her goal is to cool down the hot take for us as much as possible. And at the end, we will give our ratings. So do you have your hot take? Yes. Okay. My hot take is Hades is the best out of all the Greek gods, even though he was been a villainized to seem like he was the worst. And I would say that because I mean, I think everybody kind of knows that the Greek gods were not the best. We know Zeus with like all the women and just all the stories. But Hades, I feel was just so unbothered, you know, he did his own thing, didn't really do all the atrocious other stuff, all the other Greek gods were getting involved in it. I didn't have any ulterior motives, I would say he like, yes, he kidnapped Penelope, but like he did love her and they did like agree to end up together and like he stayed faithful to her and his duties and just. Is that more of a Stockholm syndrome? I mean, I guess you could argue that, but also I think at the end, she didn't really want to stay with her mother because her mother was a big controlling, you know, she hadn't really left home all of her life. So this was like a new thing for her, I guess. But compared to all the other Greek gods and Zeus and all his Escavades, I would say that Hades was definitely the best God and was the most authentic is the word I would say. So was it just that like all the other Greek gods were so egregiously horrible that like he doesn't seem so bad or is it like. You can't be that bad, but then I do want to ask like, is there some aspect of like how the Greek saw him and how he was shaped by like Greek ideology like if that's the case, like, is there a reason why he didn't have that many bad stories about him or I mean bad and like the modern sense, I'm sure like they had different standards back then and different ideas of things to like, is there a reason for it. Like why he isn't Bill and I mean like why he isn't considered to be. I'm confused. Yeah, like like why isn't he like why isn't he as egregiously bad as the other gods because like at least in the modern sense, I'm I'm sure even back then like death was viewed as a bad thing. So, or was it just that like they didn't want to mess with the God of death more or I guess they didn't want to mess with any of the dogs like is there a specific reason why Hades didn't do as much bad stuff. I mean, I think he was put in a position by his brothers, you know, like the casting of the lots and like picking which area of like the world they wanted to rule. He was just like pushed into that by his brothers and like cast away so I think he was just so far removed from humanity and also kind of felt jilted by his brothers and I mean he is the God of death so. I would assume that a lot of humans were scared of him so. I guess he just kind of removed himself from that situation and just carried out his duty which is a very like Roman and like lie in ideal is the word ideal. And so I think he just prioritized doing what he had to do and not dwelling on how he's perceived by others and just carrying out his duty. I'm ready for the radiance. Yeah, that sounds good. I'll think about give me a minute to come up with my it's okay if it's a little. This doesn't have to be in the recording we can cut this out but I'm still like interested like why why Hades specifically have all the Gods. Why was it just that like he was overlooked more and he didn't have that much. And so like there's so many stories of like the Gods getting involved in human affairs and like cause wars and stuff like. I don't even know what all the involvements like and the Iliad and like that war was but there was so many like taking sides God killing human God's killing humans because of like. I never cited they had taken our opinions they had or whatever motives they had but you know Hades didn't really bother himself to get involved without just something. I really respected and like reading Percy Jackson to it was the same where all the Gods would get involved and you know. Yeah, kind of like mess with his life for whatever purposes they wanted but I mean. I was really like far removed from that like you know they thought he stole the lightning bowl he didn't you know he just. Yeah, it just seems like I'm not thinking about like all the missed stories I know like whenever the underworld or like Hades is mentioned. It's just like they're just trying to do their job you know like making sure that people who die are like in the underworld and you don't like escape death and like all that kind of stuff. I think he was a lot less mischievous than like conniving than the other gods. It's the most stoic yes. Maybe it's because like at least back then like death was a relatively simple thing compared to all the things in life I guess we can even say that now. And so like a lot of the other gods which are associated with things in life there's so many more experiences and so many more. Like other thing I mean again we don't include this I'm just curious because I've never been like much of a mid person to like get you that death is like a very simple thing but like in life like love is a very complex thing and so like the gods of love is going to have different stories about her that are going to be complex because people are going to have different feelings about love but like death is very strict and very. Yeah I agree especially like and I don't know if it's Roman or pretty culture but I think it's probably Roman like death was a very straightforward strict thing you know they had their rituals you had to be buried properly you know have like the coin under the tongue or something like that to cross the. You know it's just a very straightforward thing and so if you followed the rituals you were guaranteed you know to pass on to the underworld so it was just I think his job was more methodical and you know precise so that could have had a part to blame that yeah. Okay yeah so I can go ahead and give my rating I give this a 7.2 I think it was definitely a very interesting perspective but maybe not as high of a take at the beginning because I mean that's something that I feel like I've kind of noticed in Latin class as well 80s being more of a caretaker like a. Mediator for things instead of getting involved in affairs. It was a lukewarm take. Okay I was going to I was going to give it like an 8.3 just I really liked your take I thought it was super interesting because I always thought of Hades is the bad guy he's the god of god of death but what you were saying about him being a stoic figure and. Not actively see meddling in humans lives and causing mischief that was really interesting point. Yeah I'm going to give it a 6 because I really like your reasoning and again it was like it did kind of make sense at the beginning but I think the way you explained it like the idea that he hasn't really doing anything a lot of the time he just like. He's just kind of there most of the time while the other gods are like meddling in human affairs like you think of the Trojan war which is really like the gods pitting against each other like he doesn't really ever like do that kind of stuff and. Again like it's important to think about like the culture back then and like the context of these gods again the whole religion and the idea of the god the myth is around them they're shaped by the experiences of the people under them so. I really like your argument about that I think that was really interesting okay yeah so that means our final score the average of us three is a 7.2. Congratulations. And yeah so we always like to give the opportunity for our guests to end up the episode with any final thoughts shout outs or even reflections. Yeah I would like to shout out my lot in teacher was just far from me or we call him spar you played such a huge part in my classic journey and like I don't even coming here to a big university I haven't had a teacher yet like him so passionate just genuinely wanting to help. You know their students enjoy the content that they're learning and apply it in their lives and so. I would say shout out to him like he's truly made my classics and JCL experience. [Music] [Music]