Library Lessons Part Two

This is what I've realized during my second trip to the library this week:

1. I have spent more time in the library these last few days than I have in my entire college career.
2. Though you may seem or even feel like a loser, a few hours in the library can be more productive if you go on Friday afternoon/evening. The awkward silence becomes an empty one. Add headphones and you can forget you're even there.
3. Good headphones are a good investment. Especially if you want to blast explicit music while you hammer out an 2600 word paper. Or just don't want the random stranger next to you to know just how much you love that song by Madonna.
4. The stuff on the book for sale shelf is hardly ever worth looking at.
5. It is impossible to be truly productive and walk out without at least a slight headache.It might be due to the harsh lighting or an adverse reaction to the smell of dusty dictionaries.

The Camels Back is Already Broken, The Straw is Overkill

Do professors ever actually take in consideration that everyone of their colleagues want to give out major assignments near the end of the semester? They say they do and then the last few weeks come around...all of a sudden deadlines are approaching fast and you have absolutely no time to breathe.

I was doing pretty fine until another assignment was thrown on top of my already overflowing pile. Now I just want to drop out and sleep until the end of the semester. But I have been through worse, so I am pretty sure that I can handle this.

I hope I can handle this.

Library Lessons

These are things that I have learned from after doing homework in the library for a couple hours tonight:

1.) Just because you can find footie pajamas in your size that doesn't mean that you should buy them. Or wear them in public. Especially if you're male. 

2.) Bad smells don't go away; you just get used to them.

3.) Headphones are pointless if everyone around you can hear your music.

4.) Don't assume a person is Facebook stalking you if you walk over and see your page on their computer screen.

And most importantly:

5.) I can't stand doing my homework in the library.

I'm a Good Writer, No Matter What I Think

I have hit that frustrating part of the semester where I believe that every word I write is absolute garbage. It's probably a side effect from all of the pressure caused from busy last half, but I can't stop thinking that I should quit while I'm ahead. Even writing those first two sentences was an unnecessarily difficult struggle.

But a meeting with my professor reminded me something that I forget more often than I'd like to admit: I'm good at writing. I suppose the cliche "You are your worst critic" is a cliche for a reason. Perhaps I have temporarily lost the ability to write and edit my own work without muttering to myself that I'm a failure.

Here's hoping that I can get it back soon. I have several assignments that are begging for completion.

End of the Semester is Just a Few Big Papers Away

This week, I have to work on three assignments. Going along with my quickly calculated schedule, I can handle all of this work as long as I type two full pages for at least one assignment each day.

I have no motivation but I refuse to leave this all to the very last second since the last minute has already come and gone.

This semester will be over be for I know it. That is the only thing that's keeping me going at the moment.

Procrastination Kills Slowly

I have 3 assignments due tomorrow. A word etymology on the slang term of my choice (I finally settled with dope), a poetry book review and a poetry reading review (which is actually quite awkward because I'm writing about the professor).

This wouldn't be an issue if I didn't waste most of last week doing almost absolutely nothing.

I should really stop procrastinating so much.

I'm Much Too Tired for This

Once again, I posted on one blog with the intention of posting on another.

This time I'll blame it on the fact that I have been locked up in my apartment for the last 24+ hours doing nothing but watching the Home Shopping Network and taking naps.

I am losing my mind.

Come to Me, Motivation

For someone who has four assignments due next Tuesday, I am extremely unmotivated.

I need to at least do something today. Maybe a poem or two. I could always finish the first part of my poetry collection review. Or start my last etymology assignment...

Or I can keep procrastinating and do it later.

No. After I type the period at the end of this sentence will jump up and get started on my homework. 

Food Coma Eminent

I'm pretty sure I ate too much today. All you can eat soup, salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden and an unreasonable amount of stuffing got the best of me.

I want to go to sleep. But I promised myself that I would be productive so I will fight the urge to climb into my bed and pass out. For now.

An Earlier Wednesday Than Usual

Today, I broke my pleasant habit of sleeping in on Wednesday by getting up at around eight. I didn't just do it for kicks and giggles...I volunteered to be a part of a diversity panel at a presentation for high school females that were visiting the campus for a tour. Instead of listening to the quiet voice in my head that tried to convince me that staying in bed and avoiding public speaking, I got up early and sat in front of a large group of strangers...

It was actually quite pleasant. Truthfully, I feel more comfortable talking to younger people, especially girls. I guess it comes from my time as section leader in my high school marching band where I was almost forced to be a good role model for the underclassmen.

But it was a good group of girls over all. And one girl actually had questions for me. Yes, they were about a college back where I live on the other side of the state, but I still thought that it was really cute that she decided to not only ask me questions during the panel, but approach me afterward too.

And we also got treated to breakfast after our part of the program was over. Free food is always a good thing.

It was worth waking up early and facing my fears.

Know How to Choose Your Battles...And Your Classes

After two weeks, a four page paper and the fear of a double-quiz, I have decided to drop my science quad. Because signing up for physics was a mistake.

I shouldn't have listened to all of the professors that tried to convince me that I was smart enough to handle it. I should have listened to my gut and dropped the class during the 20 minute break he gave us during the first class meeting.

Now I have to take two science classes next semester in order to graduate. All I can do now is enjoy my free time while it lasts.

English Majors--Killing the Environment, One Assignment at a Time

It is really hard to be as green as everyone wants you to be when your major requires to print out several pages of writing assignments every week. I recycle and compost as much as I can but because I study English, I'm sure that my ecological footprint is huge.

Last semester, I averaged about three papers a week. Each paper was at least three pages long. This isn't counting the final few weeks of the semester when I had to complete several assignments that had an eight page minimums.

This time around is definitely not as bad coursework wise, but I still have to print out at least six pages a week because of my poetry workshop course. And since it's poetry, the assignment hardly ever takes up more than half a page. I just need the extra copies so my workshop group members can look over my poem and give me their feedback. Feedback that I don't always reference in the end.

In short, a forest dies just so that I can struggle to compose a sestina. I should work harder to make each word count since a life was taken to make it possible.

Indecision on a Friday Night

One of the most difficult decisions that a college student has to make is deciding whether or not you want to go out on a Friday night.

You could go out, but you could also stay in, relax and watch movies. This may seem like a simple choice but it could actually be quite complicated depending on the situation.

The problems that I have to solve with on a regular basis.

College Really Is Almost Over

I am only one class away from completing my major and two classes away from completing my minor...I don't know what to do with myself. That's not enough classes to be considered a full time student, so I considering taking something completely pointless. Like yoga or tai chi.

But I will be productive and take the fiction workshop that would actually be helpful in the future.

No fun for me, I suppose.

PCs Can Be Dangerous to My Health

I'm currently typing this up on a laptop I was forced to check out from the library in order to be productive after my Macbook died. I have no charger cord and the only person I know that has one is currently off campus and probably won't be back until tomorrow. Time will go on with or without me, so I had no other choice.

Okay, so I did have other options. No one put a gun to my head and marched me into the library media center to rent a computer but I didn't want to sit in the library or borrow the laptop that my roommate so generously offered. Taking advantage of the library's 24-hour laptop rental system seemed like the best idea I could come up with.

The laptop is an old HP with Windows XP. It's ugly, it's slow and the resolution is so harsh, my eyes are burning. I don't consider myself a snobby Mac user but this is not the most pleasant experience I've ever had with technology.

I'm seriously fighting off a headache. Gathering the strength and motivation to do my homework is hard enough...I don't want to have to worry about a laptop damaging my brain.

I'm done. I need my Mac back now.

Wearing a Sticker Like a Little Kid

Today is election day and one of the biggest parts of the entire voting process is the sticker that you get in the end as proof of your responsibility.

I realize that Detroit voting stickers are a bit more "accusatory" than that ones they use on the west side of the state. While the people are around me are showing their pride with cute little stickers with a tiny American flag, mine shirt is branded with a significantly larger sticker that not only states that I voted, but asks if you did too.

It comes of kind of harsh depending on how you decide to take it. I guess that's Detroit for you.

Physics: Setting My Brain on Fire, One Cell at a Time

Tomorrow is the second day of my brand new Physics quad. This wouldn't be that big of a deal if it wasn't for the fact that we are having a "short quiz" before we dive into our next lecture.

He says "short quiz", I hear "long drawn out mathematical exam worth about half my grade."

Going over the lecture notes and textbook, it doesn't seem too bad. But for someone who hasn't been tested on anything math related in three year or anything even remotely scientific in four, the idea of the quiz is terrifying.

Trying to remember the equations makes my head hurt in a very weird way. It's not a headache or migrane but an slow burning sensation...

Maybe I'm thinking too hard and smoke is beginning to form...

 

Graduation is Coming...But Part of Me Wants To Stay?

I plan on graduating in May and I just realized something: I'm actually going to miss college.

Today was a fantastic day. A surprisingly interesting class (the history of the English language fascinates me more and more each day), a pleasant conversation with a favorite professor (I learned that its okay to not like T.S. Eliot because she doesn't either), a warm cup of pumpkin pie and gingerbread coffee put a nice smile on my face. It was just one of those perfectly easy college afternoons.

And soon that will all be over. It feels bittersweet. I wouldn't mind staying here if I could hang out, take some easy classes for free and not pay any additional tuition fees...but college is not free and I'm not staying another year just for fun.

No matter how much I don't really want to leave, I can't stay here. But I can always come back for Homecoming as a proud member of the alumni.

Dictionaries Can Be Fun?

I'm an English major so it is obvious that I love words. It would be absolutely impossible for someone who didn't like them to handle everything that I have to deal with on a daily basis. But I suppose I never realized how deep this feeling really goes...that is, until I started taking a course on the history of the language.

When the professor explained that we would be required to complete assignments based on the origin and definition of random Old English vocabulary, I almost sighed from boredom. And when a friend of mine tried to convince me that the assignments were one of the best parts of the course, I just nodded in an attempt to avoid saying something rude. They both promised that logophiles would find the work interesting, but that fancy term couldn't apply to me right?

Well, "broil me in butter and call me a flounder" because somehow, the history of words like dress and pumpkin fascinate me. Greatly. All of the different forms, meanings, etymologies...writing the essays isn't most pleasurable way to spend my time, but doing the research and getting full credit makes it worth the effort.

But don't think that you'll ever catch me reading the dictionary in my spare time. I'm not enjoying my homework that much.