Letters from the dorm: Life is busy, but in a good way
The stack of notes Candace has just for one classI am now fully aware of the work that I have to do. The "OMG, bye-bye high school, I'm finally in college" feeling has worn off.
The quarter system - having three quarters making up the academic year, instead of two longer ones as in the semester system - is great ... but it can be brutal.
With only 10 weeks of instruction at a time, the days go by very quickly and are very intense. I just got back to Seattle a few days ago after spending three weeks in Hong Kong. And in just a few weeks, I have my mid-term exams. Oh my!
Everything is crammed together in the quarter system, but it does allow me to change my schedule more often. It's also long enough to cover the subject matter, but short enough that I won't lose interest halfway through. And it also means that once the quarter is over, it's over. No homework during spring break! Yay!
All I know now is that I'm going to be busy ... or at least busier than I was last quarter. I'm taking two second-year classes (Contemporary Problems of Asian Americans and Introduction to Communications) and a class on Global Warming. The workload seems daunting already! All those mid-terms, finals and papers are bound to add up and overlap.
You could say that I'm going through a bit of an identity crisis because I opted to take another course on Asian American Studies this quarter.
I only took "an Introduction to Asian American History" last quarter as it was one of the few classes open during my orientation that had the fewest morning classes and only one class on a Friday - haha!
On a side note, knowing that one of my role models, Prohgress (a member of the Far East Movement), majored in Asian American Studies may have subconsciously affected my initial decision to study the subject. Hey - it's nice to know that my fangirling has amounted to something other than hyperventilating!
This is so corny, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but the fact that I "identify" with the issues we cover in class also makes the subject more interesting, as it hits closer to home.
All in all, I'm satisfied with my schedule. While I may not have a day off this time, getting to sleep in a little every day is good enough for me! As long as I don't have to wake up as early as I did in high school (6.30am), I'll be happy.