It’s the middle of October, school isn't fun anymore, and I need coffee. Personally, I love the beginning of the school year. Getting supplies, buying some new clothes, and starting fresh with five new classes always puts a smile on my face. Sadly, as I've gotten farther into my college career, I've learned that the beginning of the school year seems to be a lot shorter than it was when I was a freshman. Once you get past those one hundred level classes professors don’t spend days going over the syllabus. They usually just send it to you in an email and then on the first day they jump right in. In my Shakespeare class I already have half of my final grade completed and it’s not even Halloween yet. I've been very busy and I do not like it.
The things most people seem to hate about school are the things I actually enjoy the most. I love waking up early and usually wake up before 8am even when I don’t have to. I also love being organized and use a planner to make sure I know when things are due. What I don’t love is when I have a midterm, a presentation, and a paper all due in the same week. As much as I love to be organized, I also love to procrastinate. So basically if I have a bunch of things due in one week they’re not even going to be thought about until the day before they’re due. Truthfully they probably won’t be fully completed until minutes before the deadline. This method hasn’t failed me yet so I’m just going to assume I produce my best work under extreme amounts of pressure and exhaustion.
Luckily as an English major, most of my homework is just to read a bunch of stuff. The problem is none of the stuff I want to read is on the list of things I have to read. If I was asked to read People Magazine and keep track of Taylor Swift’s boyfriends I would definitely do that assignment well in advance of its due date. Instead I’m forced to read The Canterbury Tales and keep track of Geoffrey Chaucer’s thirty pilgrims. It’s not an easy task but so far I still have an A in my literature class so I guess it isn’t too bad. I’ve also been reading a lot of Shakespeare which has proved to be a lot more interesting than I expected. My personal favorite line Shakespeare has ever written is in Romeo and Juliet when Capulet says to Tybalt, “You are a saucy boy” (1.5.82). I’m definitely going to try to use that phrase in casual conversation.
College is hard but it’s manageable. Already having two years under belt I’m pretty positive that I almost know what I’m doing (both in terms of school work and life in general). Sometimes I feel like everything is going exactly how I want it to and other times it’s 10 p.m. on a Friday night and I’m very confused reading The Merchant of Venice while also eating thousands of calories in sour patch kids.
