Test-Taking, Lucky Tunicas, and A Picture of My Future

Posted On March 21, 2021

I asked a good friend of mine what I should blog about recently. I was just stumped. Sure, I could ramble on about life and books and stories some more, but I’ve done a lot of that and wanted to write something different. Of course, she had plenty of suggestions, but the first one she brought up was the NLE.

For all of you non-Latin people out there, let me enlighten you. The NLE stands for the National Latin Exam, and it’s just what it sounds like; a Mega Exam to Test Your Latin Skills.

I took this exam recently, March 8 to be exact. As it was my first time taking it, I had no idea what to expect. So I emailed my said friend and asked about it. In came loads of information about the exam, along with tips for Exam Day, such as:

• Wear your lucky clothes, whatever they may be
• Do not, under any circumstances, stay up late the night before
• Eat a marshmallow immediately after the exam
• Don’t be nervous, or else your brain will turn into a mushroom

(For the record, I am paraphrasing.)

The weeks leading up to the exam, I studied a lot. By ‘a lot’, I mean this. I went through the NLE practice app around 10 times a day, reread “D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths” to be current on Mythology, and researched how to make a Roman Toga.

Well, okay. The Roman Toga wasn’t for the NLE, it was for Dress-Like-A-Roman-Day in my Latin class, but still. I rummaged through my mom’s voluminous stack of bedsheets and found a set that was permissible to butcher. Though they weren’t undyed wool like a real toga would be, they were the closest thing I could find. I looked up the specifics about Roman clothing, and guess what I found out? Roman women didn’t wear togas at all! They wore something called a tunica, which looks like a long piece of cloth draped over the body. On their shoulders, they wore fibulae, which are decorative pins that held up their sleeves.

So I disappeared into our family’s craft room, which is like a large closet with a built in desk for a sewing machine, and it is loaded with crafting supplies. I mean, loaded. A great-aunt of ours gave us nearly all of her vast array of sewing, quilting, and crocheting stock. Boxes and boxes of assorted cloths line the ceiling, I kid you not.

Anyway, my first attempt at a tunica didn’t turn out so well. It looked like a mega pillowcase hat I stuffed myself into. Hmmm, I thought. What did I do wrong?

I tried again, this time measuring with a bit more care, and my second try turned out better. when I draped it perfectly, it looked like something out of a Roman sculpture. I found some old pins and put them on my shoulders, then put up my hair in a very Roman way. (Not really, but hey. I did my best.)

Well, somehow, (I have no idea how it happened), I found myself donning my tunica an fibulae the morning of March 8, my nerves feeling very nervous, and my head swimming with infinitives, genitives, and third declension -i stem nouns. The test was over before I knew it, and I was confident that I had done well. (I still don’t have my results, actually, but I will soon!)

My Roman tunica is now my Lucky Latin clothes, for better or for worse.

I went downstairs, ate a marshmallow, and then changed back into normal clothes, my test-taking adventure done for now.

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Well, that’s all I have to say on the subject of the NLE.

On another note, tomorrow is my birthday! As I mentioned in some other post (I forget which one, sorry), I wanted to go to a coffeeshop for my birthday last year, but was unable to because of the worldwide pandemic. It was unfortunate timing, really. But on the happier side of things, this year is a new day, a fresh opportunity. And here I sit in Panera right now, with coffee and a scone, blogging. Mom keeps trying to snap photos of me, saying that it’s like a glimpse of the future. “When you’re on your own,” she’ll say, “this is where I’ll find you. Sitting by a window, with coffee and a scone, typing on a laptop.”

And I giggle maniacally and agree that yes, that basically sums up my future.

Well, that’s all I have to say for today. God bless you all!