 What does the myth of Persephone, which is usually understood as a story about the seasons, have to do with us in our modern world? Just to back up When Persephone is abducted and forced to marry the god of the underworld, her mother, who's the goddess of the harvest, stops all crops from growing until the gods can reach a deal. Basically, Persephone has to spend part of the year in the underworld as Queen of the Dead, and that's when there's winter. But then she gets to spend the rest of the year with her mom reunited on the surface of the earth, and that's when spring returns. So it is a cool story about the seasons, but it's also a metaphor for the experience of arranged marriage, for the pain of mother-daughter separation, and also for the fear and uncertainty that we can all experience when we're ending one life stage and starting another. The reason that I love this story is that it reminds me of my grandmother and what she might have gone through when she had her arranged marriage and moved from her parents' house to her husband's house and became a wife and a mother. It also makes me think of what she might have experienced as she was ending her life in Korea and moving to the United States to help raise me and my siblings. The story of Persephone, told by people from a really different time and place, gives me a way to think about the ways in which all of our experiences, including those with my students, who are often struggling through life transitions, are connected and relevant to each other. If you study classics at Gustavus, then you will also have the opportunity to learn about people and cultures that are maybe sometimes similar and maybe different from yours, and you'll have the opportunity to reflect on stories that'll help you figure out who you are, what role you want to play in the world, and how you're going to tell your own story going forward. So come join us. Tell us your story.