Correlation

Although we had Monday off for MLK day, I'm still gonna say this is my first official "week" of school as I learn how to juggle everything. You wanna know what college REALLY teaches you? Time management. And if you don't learn that soon, you're screwed. Now I haven't always been the best at it, being a very successful procrastinator and all, but I'm happy to find out I'm getting better at it. I've fought hard to get here and have this opportunity and I'll be damned if I let myself screw it up. So I this week I have been maneuvering through 6 classes, working out every day, and cooking for myself. Pretty soon I'll add in working to that as well and I may or may not be a zombie by the end of the semester. But the point is, I'm actually enjoying this. Like I am for once so excited about where I'm at and what I'm doing and I'm not constantly stressed about what happens next. I'm not staring at the clock on the wall (most classrooms don't even have one, but you know what I mean) counting the minutes until class lets out and I'm not putting off homework because I hate it. I'm not listening to my professors go on and on about something I couldn't possibly care less, and wondering when in the hell in my life am I ever going to need to know this crap. No, I am engaged in class, focused, and LEARNING! I am astounded that I picked classes this semester that all relate to one another. It's like my choice to pursue this new path is being validated.

My favorite class right now has to be my Philosophy class, taught by Dr. Phil Oliver. (Phil OLIVER the PhilOSOPHER... get it? ha) I took this class because I wanted to know what Philosophy was. I knew it had to be important, but I had never had someone explain to me what it was. And I understand now why that never happen because there's not a real straight-forward way to answer that. Maybe by the end of the class I'll be able to form my own opinion of what it is to me. But for right now, the way I understand it is the practice of challenging what we call common sense and actively pursuing knowledge. Always wanting to know more.. which I am very familiar with. And the way that our professor teaches our class is that we have assigned reading from different books, depending on what group we are in (our class is divided up into four groups) and then discussing what we read. And let me tell you.. this discussions get interesting. We also assign one person from each group to be a "floater" who rotates to other groups throughout the class and reports back on what the other groups discussed at the end. Then we all go onto the class blog and post about it and continue our discussions so the whole class can see what each group has to say and post comments and such. And we are also allowed to post questions or topics that we think are important material for the class so that our professor will have an idea of things that would be good to put on our exams. We basically make our own exams. I've never encountered this way of teaching before but I absolutely love it! But the main thing that I am gathering from this class is the ability to open my mind and take in others' opinions and points of view. Expanding the way I see things, so to speak. Just as we challenge our beliefs or assumptions of one another in class, I know I will be in the same kind of situation whenever I travel. It's like practice runs for inevitable culture shock. And that is comforting to me to know that I'm training myself for what I intend to do in the future.

Plus, my cultural anthropology and global culture classes are so linked together that they actually had the same definitions listed in their class on Wednesday. Those will obviously benefit me. And my French class, yeah those benefits are obvious as well. My geography of Europe class is showing me everyday that I am so incredibly lost when it comes to knowing the geography of anything outside the US, but hey, I'm taking it to learn. Embarrassed now, knowledgeable later. The only class that doesn't seem to fit into all of this is my History class which is required by TN colleges. I believe its 3 of them, and the one I got into this semester was the History of the early settlement of the US. At first, I figured it would be a boring class, but thankfully our professor really loves what he does and it shows in his teaching. He doesn't want us to memorize a whole bunch of names and dates and regurgitate it all back onto the exam, but he wants us to understand how we came to be. It's fascinating to really pay attention to how America became what we know today and understand why we are so different from other countries. Gotta know where you come from to understand where you're going :)

It feels amazing to already be able to see the benefits of this decision. And when I feel like it's too much or I'm wondering why I chose this, I can come back here and remind myself. I'm only at the start of my journey, but damn it's already looking good!