Higher Learning

I am officially a full time college student. The last week and a half has been quite eye opening for me. I'm old.

8:00a is too bloody early to have to be in a class that's down by the stadium when I live in North, North Tampa. My train of thought was to knock everything out in the morning so I could be home by lunch so I will have ample time to study (one of my teachers said that with a full class load you should be studying about 36 hours a week). I don't know if I have the motivation for that. It's been colder than Dolores Umbridge's tit (HP reference) in the mornings and having to leave to go to school before, at or shortly after 7am sucks. I'm not used to this early morning get up and go somewhere shit anymore. Granted, I generally get up in the morning at the crack of dawn with My Man, but I would usually go back to sleep shortly thereafter. By the time I get home from school at 11a I'm ready for a nap.

The whole purchasing of college textbooks is a racket. Why do I need to buy a new Humanities: From Prehistoric to the Renaissance book? Has history changed? I have the same issue with my American History class - the book I need is Volume I: to 1877. Umm, I know people would like to rewrite history but that is not an option. Shenanigans I say!

On the agenda this semester: Humanities (on campus), American History (online), Psychology (on campus) and English Composition II (online). I didn't think I'd say this but I think I actually prefer the lecture classes over the online ones.

I have never felt so old in my life as I did on the first day of class. These kids on campus looked exactly like that - kids - no older that 14 or so. It made me feel dino-rrific.

My first class at the ass crack of dawn is Psychology. The ignorance of the kids in that class. On the first day teach asked what peeps thought about when they heard the work psychology. The dumb ass Spanish kid in front of me said, "Padded room. Crazy." Oh hell. The teacher is taking a team approach this semester and divided us into groups. I'm on Team Five and we're seated in the back of the class. I feel like I'm back in high school. Team Five also has two possibly social misfits (excluding myself) and the fun has already started. On a side note, I got a bit pissed today when one of the team asked me if he could borrow my notes because he just can't keep up and I write fast. Then some of my other teammates said the same thing, they couldn't keep up. I'm gonna do it just this once, but I absolutely will not be responsible for playing secretary to this team. Everyone knows I'm a loner, Dottie, a rebel, so the whole thought of having to be in a group is already wearing on me.

I'm petrified of my Humanities class. I have to write two papers this semester where I have to read some old literature (from Prehistoric times to the Renaissance) and make connections between that story/poem/multiple verses of the bible and a news article written in the last 5 years. Not excited about this one bit. I have a hard time deciphering ye old writings and to somehow show how the underlying concepts of the story of Adam and Eve can be referenced in current affairs is a task I don't know if I can complete. The biggest problem is I HAVE to get an 'A' in this class as it's one of the classes I dropped/failed out of back in the day and the class can only be taken twice. No pressure. We had a pop quiz in class today because no one read the Epic of Gilgamesh. I really did read it last week and it closely parallels the story of Noah and the Arc but I don't remember names and crap like that. And again, to take that and bring it into present day I believe is nearly impossible. However, I know I did better than my 18 year old buddy I sit next to. The first question was, "What was the name of Gilgamesh's friend?" His answer - Joe.

American History should be easy enough. My assignment last week was to create an original post and reply to someone else's post regarding the question, "What advice would you give the Native Americans in regards to the impending onslaught of their people by the Europeans?" Run?! Fortunately, earlier in the week my Humanities teacher happened to say the Native Americans lived in a Neolithic society before the introduction of the Europeans. Sounded good to me and I scored 25/25 points, putting me at the 'A' level thus far. I have a quiz due by Sunday so we'll see where I am then.

English Comp. starts this week. I'm hoping this one won't be too bad. I have the faith in myself that I can ace this class but I do have to write some type of long, fully documented research paper of sorts. I guess I'll find out in a few days.

Thus the start of my new student life has been fairly uninteresting. There's a lot of information for my brain to absorb and unfortunately my short term memory is fried. Hopefully I'll get into the swing of things relatively quickly. I think I can, I know I can, Matta' of fact I'm sure I can.