As someone who makes decisions months in advance when possible and likes to stay on top of her work, hearing about Brown's shopping period for the first time was no less than horrifying. Instead of having my classes picked out months in advance like most of my friends in other schools, I was supposed to place as many classes as my heart desired into an online "shopping cart" over the month of August. Since there are no class requirements for freshmen except for what's in your concentration, these could be anything from Chemistry (multiple levels and variations of it) to a tiny first year seminar on Shakespearean literature. By the end of orientation after we met in person with our advisors, we were supposed to narrow down our courses to only 5 through a glitchy online registration process the night before classes actually started. But this is where the term "Shopping Period" actually comes into play: over the first two weeks of the school year, we were allowed to sit in on whatever class we wanted, whether or not we were registered for it, and see if we wanted to switch around our schedule--even though classes were already in session!
The idea of getting settled into living in a new place and making new friends and joining tons of clubs was scary enough to someone who hates change, but the idea of not truly knowing what classes I was going to take until two weeks into the school year was even scarier. How would it be possible to manage the course-loads of a bunch of different classes as I made the decision?
I could have just stuck with the original four or five classes that I had picked during orientation, but part of me was curious. What about that class on social psychology I saw online, or that first year seminar about anthropogenic activity's effect on animals?
Originally, I had ambitiously registered for four STEM classes thinking it would be manageable. Boy, was I wrong. After sitting in on each class for one day and hearing about all of the work as well as all of the other labs and tutoring sessions and meetings I would have to enroll in, I laughed and walked right out. At that point, I was actually thankful I had the opportunity and flexibility of shopping period--I would have died with my original course-load.
One problem I've had in the past is that I don't like to make changes in my lifestyle in order to improve it because I would rather adapt. Going into shopping period, I was afraid I was going to have to adapt to boring or impossible classes because I didn't want to attend extra classes and deal with uncertainty. Luckily, I did what I didn't want to do--in the end, I ended up with four completely different classes than I started off with. I adjusted class times based on which professors seemed the best, and what would work for my sleep and squash schedule.
Over the past two weeks, I've learned to not only cope with change, but embrace it. Brown's getting me out of my comfort zone and I'm grateful for that. Here's to a great semester!
