Grad School: Week One

Well, this week has been relatively calm, with the exception of some money stress (thank you Tech for not paying me for another month!) It really is extremely surprising, since unlike other more fortunate majors, AEs usually get slammed with reading and homework from day 1. None of this 'let's go over the syllabus and call it a day stuff.' And not this happened in any of my classes, but 2 of the 3 were cancelled this week. So it made for not only definitely the easiest first week I've ever had, but also one of the easiest weeks I've ever had at this school. Period.

Just in time, too. Because I am dealing with some serious lack of motivation, man am I burned out issues. This week did come with the usual what classes do I take drama. I signed up for fixed wing, adm 2 and design seminar like I was supposed to, but struggled with propulsion and spanish linguistics. I heard many bad things about propulsion, including that it wasn't very useful... plus it's Fridays 3-6, so the decision to not take it was somewhat easy. Although I still fear the wrath of Doc on this one.

Spanish was more difficult. For the first time ever I found myself dreading going to that class. Never has this happened with a language class before... not even when they were 3 hours long. The class I went to, Spanish Linguistics, is taught by a woman from Spain and sounds extremely interesting. However, there is a fair amount of work involved with the class, including a project that comprises nearly half the final grade. I just didn't feel like doing the work... which was really disappointing, because I try to never let that stand in the way of a great class.

But, after some chats with my favorite people, we all agreed that I should ease up on the course load to give myself time to adjust and to also recover from last semester. There you have it folks: for the first time since I can remember, I am taking the easy way out and not pushing myself.

As hard as this is for me to be ok with, I feel that in the end it will be the right decision. After being sick almost all of 2005, I'd like to focus more on myself and my health this year. That includes not having to stay up late to finish work, not stressing out so much, not running around like crazy, sleeping enough and excercising regularly.

Now if I could only find the motivation... Melissa is probably waiting for me to lose what she has to gain!