so this is how attending class without reading the assignment really feels like

Back in school, I'd sometimes attend class with only a brief scan of my reading assignment in my head. In those days, winging it seemed to be the only way to go with the heavy academic loads I kept taking per term. This is why I haven't read Little Prince in its entirety in English (I forced myself to read it in French with the help of a read-along YouTube video... yes, with the jumping balls). I have only read bits and pieces of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet.

And then there's one book I couldn't seem to let go in high school, Dante's Inferno; that is, until I started having nightmares about the imagery I was getting from the book. Thus, I didn't even read the other two books: Paradiso and Purgatorio.

One evening, I thought that it might be a good idea to sit and listen in on a lecture on Dante's Divine Comedy trilogy at the Ayala Museum. 

It definitely was not.

Not because the lecture was bad; no, it was a really good lecture... Instead, it's because I wasn't ready to be surrounded by people who have all read Purgatorio and were having a highly educated discussion on its symbolism and how it parallels both Dante's real life and his fictitious version in the Divine Comedy. 

I was taken aback. I was definitely not in college anymore. I was surrounded by Dante fans and enthusiasts! And I didn't even know where to start catching up! The picture did not do justice to the roomful of people because I took this photo before the lecture started. And yes, the audience were reading the material before the lecture began.