College...stuff
Sep. 6th, 2011 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkWow, first day into the semester and I'm already cranky. This doesn't bode well for the new year...
Good news: I pretty much decided on my post-undergrad plans during the summer, which is a huge weight off my shoulders (apply to law school & take a gap year after graduation, preferably to travel and/or teach English in Asia).
Bad news: I'm having a hard time convincing myself that a Biology major is worth it for applying to law school.
I think Ecology/Animal Behavior is cool. Molecular Genetics?...Not so much. But I'm pretty sure I have to stick with it, so...here's to another possibly very stressful college semester. *sigh*
There are two schools of thought when it comes to college: (1) focus on taking classes/majors that will lead to a good career; (2) explore, take the classes you like and have fun, because it'll be the last time you'll have to do so. These two conflicting ideologies are, I think, partly responsible for my so far confused meander through college, because I have a hard time reconciling them. The two aren't mutually exclusive, but that's only if you plan everything ahead of time and manage to lock down your career path before you graduate.
Which isn't easy for someone like me, who went sleepwalking off to college after graduating from high school. In my defense, I was brought up was one of those student sheep (no relevance to my zodiac animal at all /end tangent) who was used to focusing on the next assignment and having my courses laid out in high school. Suddenly, I come to college--and not just any college, but a college with an entirely open cirruclum, no less--and I'm asked what I want to do. But what I want to do and what I think I should do often clash, therein giving me headaches rather than enjoyment in college.
Reversals are always possible (it took an NPR chat and some Yahoo! Answers to convince me to apply to law school after having been staunchly against the idea--well, okay, and some prodding from my mom) in terms of interest in certain subjects. The other question is how to deal with fear. "Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain," said Ralph Waldo Emerson, and I'm quite honestly scared to death of my courses this semester: two extremely writing-intensive history classes, including at least one 20-page term paper, as well as the ever-dreaded Physics and now Molecular Genetics. It's hard for me to be optimistic; the "fake it till you make it" philosophy has never worked for me before. But the lesson that I still have trouble learning, despite running into it just about all the time, is that we all have to do things we don't like.
In practical terms, that means, for me, my goals this semester are:
(1) Better time management. (Always.)
(2) Better protection of eyesight. (Not exactly easy in college, which demands intense reading and screen-staring.)
(3) Keeping the big picture in mind. (In this case, that means accomplishing my goal of finishing a COHERENT draft of EK, Part 1, by the end of the year.)
...All while doing well in my courses, finishing assignments on time etc., without killing myself. Whew.
Good news: I pretty much decided on my post-undergrad plans during the summer, which is a huge weight off my shoulders (apply to law school & take a gap year after graduation, preferably to travel and/or teach English in Asia).
Bad news: I'm having a hard time convincing myself that a Biology major is worth it for applying to law school.
I think Ecology/Animal Behavior is cool. Molecular Genetics?...Not so much. But I'm pretty sure I have to stick with it, so...here's to another possibly very stressful college semester. *sigh*
There are two schools of thought when it comes to college: (1) focus on taking classes/majors that will lead to a good career; (2) explore, take the classes you like and have fun, because it'll be the last time you'll have to do so. These two conflicting ideologies are, I think, partly responsible for my so far confused meander through college, because I have a hard time reconciling them. The two aren't mutually exclusive, but that's only if you plan everything ahead of time and manage to lock down your career path before you graduate.
Which isn't easy for someone like me, who went sleepwalking off to college after graduating from high school. In my defense, I was brought up was one of those student sheep (no relevance to my zodiac animal at all /end tangent) who was used to focusing on the next assignment and having my courses laid out in high school. Suddenly, I come to college--and not just any college, but a college with an entirely open cirruclum, no less--and I'm asked what I want to do. But what I want to do and what I think I should do often clash, therein giving me headaches rather than enjoyment in college.
Reversals are always possible (it took an NPR chat and some Yahoo! Answers to convince me to apply to law school after having been staunchly against the idea--well, okay, and some prodding from my mom) in terms of interest in certain subjects. The other question is how to deal with fear. "Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain," said Ralph Waldo Emerson, and I'm quite honestly scared to death of my courses this semester: two extremely writing-intensive history classes, including at least one 20-page term paper, as well as the ever-dreaded Physics and now Molecular Genetics. It's hard for me to be optimistic; the "fake it till you make it" philosophy has never worked for me before. But the lesson that I still have trouble learning, despite running into it just about all the time, is that we all have to do things we don't like.
In practical terms, that means, for me, my goals this semester are:
(1) Better time management. (Always.)
(2) Better protection of eyesight. (Not exactly easy in college, which demands intense reading and screen-staring.)
(3) Keeping the big picture in mind. (In this case, that means accomplishing my goal of finishing a COHERENT draft of EK, Part 1, by the end of the year.)
...All while doing well in my courses, finishing assignments on time etc., without killing myself. Whew.
