First day of Spring semester completed. I am officially a Junior in college, double majoring, with an 18 hour course load. It is ridiculous how much I enjoyed throwing myself back into this and how much I am looking forward to doing homework and learning again. And I will need to re-read this post whenever I am complaining about said homework and wondering why the hell I did this to myself. But for now, it's great.
The day started at 6 am. Yes, my crazy ass got up that early to eat breakfast and walk to the Rec to finally get my butt back in the gym. I love the feeling AFTER I workout, but getting there is seriously half the battle. And I know if I don't get up and go before my mind catches on to what I'm doing, I won't do it at all that day. I'll tell myself, "Oh, you'll have time later.." but I know I won't. I've figured out my habits. So I walk into the rec, where you actually have to scan your hand to get in. Whoa, going all high tech on me here. Then when I walk in, I am seriously overwhelmed. In front of me is a huge rock wall (Score!), to the left is a weight room, to the right is a massive swimming pool, and upstairs is every kind of cardio machine you could think of, plus an aerobic room on the right side. Oh, and did I mention the quarter mile track that circles up above the basketball courts? Yeah, it's huge. And I haven't really sat down and adopted a new workout plan yet, so I just jumped on the eliptical and sweated it out for a bit. And it felt so good to sweat. Unfortunately it was something around 32 degrees outside, so the walk back to my dorm was not pleasant. I REALLY need to invest in a bike.. ya know, eventually, whenever I have that lovely green stuff.
Anyways, back to the dorm, quick shower, down a banana and some chocolate milk, get ready, check my schedule, check the map, pack my bag, check the map again, and head out the door. I wasn't sure how long it would take me to walk to my first class, so I left thirty minutes early. I got there about ten minutes before class started so it was good. My first class is History 2010: The American People, Discovery until 1877. It is a requirement for MTSU students, and the professors assures us that he doesn't take the traditional history teaching approach where we have to memorize tons of dates and people and regurgitate them at the end of the semester. We shall see. He seems pretty spirited about his subject, but I made the wrong choice of sitting in the front row, which he continuously walks up to throughout the class, and I'm pretty sure I saw him almost spit on someone. So moving further back from now on.
Then it was off to Geography of Europe. My region concentration for my global studies major is Europe because it has always interested me the most. It's what is called a web-enhanced class, which means that we only meet in the classroom once a month, and the rest of the coursework is online. Which is great because it means that most of the time I will have that block of time to come back for lunch. I'm trying to get away without needing a meal plan, so we will see how that turns out. The professor is nice and says that he's been teaching this for longer than I've been alive, and was able to draw the map of Europe from memory, so I'm hoping I pick that up by the end of the semester.
Next came Philosophy 1030: Intro to Philosophy. Or CoPhilosophy, as my professor calls it. Now this is a class that I am interested in. I figured I would be around a good bit of freshmen picking an intro class, but there was a good bit of upperclassmen, and even two older students. And most of the Juniors were even my age, which didn't make me feel so out of place. But our professor is what really stands out. He's outspoken, funny, and very animated. I couldn't tell you the first thing about philosophy right now, but he assures us that we will understand not only the subject matter, but will know where we fit in terms of contemporary, traditional, etc. Plus, we get to pick the topic of our course paper, and it can be anything we want as long as we can tie it to a philosophical aspect. He showed us a website that lists some topics and books to go along with it, and my eyes immediately found the link that said "Zombies and Philosophy". Bet ya can guess what my topic will be! :) And he runs three different blogs, two personal and one is the class blog, and also tweets. The class blog can be found here. My only complaint... he doesn't like football. He understands how strange that is for us in the South (He's from St. Louis) and says he will explain his reasoning later on in the class.
And last class of the day was French, my second major. Now, I took 2 years of French in high school, but whenever I took the placement test here, I really just could not remember the answers to any of the questions. I can count, tell you my name, tell you I can speak a little, and a few other random tidbits in French, but I could not for the life of me pass that test. So I have to start from scratch. And I know I will most likely be thankful for the refresher in the end, but right now it is a bit frustrating. I tried my best to kind of blend in, but the teacher already knows my name and calls on me for a lot of things. And three classmates were already asking how to pronounce every other thing. I am far from an expert, but hey, at least I have an idea of what I'm doing. I'll stumble through the rest of it. I need two semesters of French to qualify for the study abroad program anyways so I have time to get better.
So yes, I had a full day today, complete with snow during the middle of the day, which for a Georgian, that's rare. My hair was completely windblown and my ears felt like ice by the end of the day, and I am surprised I don't have a runny nose (knock on wood). I didn't realize how tired I was until I laid down to take a "short" nap and woke up about four hours later. At least I'll be well rested to wake up and do it all over again tomorrow! Only two classes then though, both before lunch, so it won't be as bad.
I am a college student again.. I'm learning about things that actually interest me and I'm actually looking forward to it. I agree with my philosophy professor in that students should choose their major right off the bat. I started off as a biology major because I was bound and determined to be a vet. I didn't understand all the schooling that entailed or just how competitive it would be, but if you had asked me, I would have talked your ear off about the entire plan that I had laid out for myself. And I held onto that damn plan so strongly with both hands for so long because I was so afraid of feeling lost if I happened to let go, that I never stopped to ask myself if it was really what I wanted. I was never really brave enough to stop and go down a path where I couldn't plan every detail out. For whatever reason though, last summer I did, and this is where it lead me. And I can honestly say, it feels great. Good night everyone. May you always have the courage to go with your gut!
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