Friday, January 15, 2016

Back to School

We'll get the obligatory White Stripes musical reference out of the way real fast:




Good song. Anyway, I'm a week back into being a student. I miss my free time. I knew this would happen, and yet somehow I'm still surprised at how tired I am. Last night I finished two biology assignments and rewarded myself with reading some Terry Pratchett, the funniest fantasy author you'll ever read. I love Discworld, but even that was a struggle to keep my eyes open for. Tonight it will have my more full attention.


I'm taking three courses this semester, in addition to working the good old nine to five. 


Biology is definitely going to be my biggest challenge; science is my Achilles heel. My brain doesn't want to work that way. Science vocab I can handle. Ask me to explain how and why carbon bonds with oxygen and I'll make up some nonsense about the two atoms going out for ice cream and bonding over their mutual dislike of Nicolas Cage, because I DON'T KNOW. I HAVE NEVER KNOWN. IT IS DIFFICULT FOR ME TO BELIEVE THAT I WILL EVER KNOW.





*deep breath*


But my professor seems very reasonable, and she assured me that as long as I do my best and turn in my homework, it will be difficult for me to fail the course. 


I'm also taking two history courses: World History to 1500 and the sequel, World History Since 1500. My professor seems eccentric and maybe a little too free-spirited. I am the type of student who wants to be presented with a syllabus on the first day of class and a clear expectation of the work load that will be expected of me. Currently I have neither. But history is one of those subjects I can teach myself, if necessary. 


One thing I love about college is the physical campus. I'm not talking about SLCC specifically, but any college campus. Walking around, textbooks under arm, into buildings that exist solely to spread knowledge THRILLS me. I mean, literally, I get shivers, and not just from the cold January wind. The magic and potential of college sometimes seems stronger strolling around campus than it does in the classroom.


I have a lot of other stuff of my mind today, but it's nothing groundbreaking. Why are guys on the internet never as cool as you wanted them to be? Why does Washington DC have to be so far away? Will I ever be able to stop falling in love with Adam Driver's hair? (Kylo Ren, for those of you who haven't obsessively watched every available clip of Adam on YouTube.) And who decided that your twenties get to be the decade when it seems like everyone else is moving on with their lives except you, and you're the one just going through the motions?


Also, Alan Rickman died this week. It makes me sad. It's a rather gray day. I'm watching a few snowflakes drift half-heartedly down, and I want to curl up next to a fire with my Terry Pratchett novel and read. Martin Luther King Day is Monday, so a day off from school and work. Read: a day to do homework because biology refuses to be ignored. 


I found a short story that I wrote this summer. It was cute and fluffy and I really liked it. Maybe I'll write the sequel to it tonight. Sometimes you have to force yourself to feel cute and fluffy instead of giving in to the urge to watch the sentimental episodes of The Office while eating approximately 93493 pounds of popcorn.