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As I mentioned in class, I had a rather unhealthy obsession with religion as a child. By the time I reached my eighth grade graduation however, I had come to the conclusion that I could no longer trust in my childhood religion merely because it was presented to me as truth. Recently, the ever elusive question of faith reached a level of almost obsessive importance again.

So here I go, already entering into the world of Moby-Dick as a perfect example of what Melville warns his readers not to be: a meaning seeker.

What type of reader am I? Well clearly that's an easy question to answer. I am a meaning seeker, a generalizer, a philosopher. I look for universal truths in order to apply some sort of lesson to my everyday life. Honestly, I don't think there has ever been a single thing I read that I didn't try to relate to my life philosophy. This class is, for the first time, causing me to question the way I read and my relationship with books in general. Ultimately, I think I have fallen into the same trap as Melville. I mock organized religion and claim to consider it meaningless while deep down, I secretly have always continued to search for some higher power, some meaning behind it all.

Where will I be at the end of Moby-Dick? Where will Ishmael be? Probably in the middle of the ocean with only enough money for a new pair of clothes, but only time will tell I guess.