November Somethingorother

There are a very select few things that I actually hate in life, and two of them are processed cheese and exercises in futility. I can’t stand wasting time any more than I can stand eating American cheese. I know I’m long overdue with this post, but I’ve had to spend at least the past few days refraining from posting so that I would, in a rash frenzy, post anything I might later regret. Considering the events of the past week, I could very easily have worked myself into such a frenzy. So instead I let myself calm down, think things through, and then spent last night writing for a good hour and a half at least. I’m not going to post any of that stuff here, because while it may all be sound conclusions and responses to everything, my goal remains to not make any unnecessary enemies. See, I haven’t done anything wrong in all of this business. Not any single smithereen of the blame can be justifiably placed on me. Therefore, if I say nothing, I can’t get into any trouble. Instead I’m going to write about what life is like knowing that in just two short weeks I will be done with my first semester classes. After that only two small exams stand in the way of ultimate victory and Christmas break. I’m counting on being able to survive that long.

Today is my second to last Monday of classes. I came to school not dreading class like I had been for a number of weeks prior to the Thanksgiving recess. Sleeping in for five straight days really does wonders for a person who is about to explode from the excitement (in a bad way) of school. Now that I’ve been back for exactly two classes, I remember just why it was I dragged and trudged aimlessly along before the break. I think I almost collapsed into a quivering fit during Foundations of Engineering at least sixteen times during the course of the two hours. I mean, I very nearly just flopped out of my chair, curled up on the floor, and just started shaking. My brain was screaming out in protest. I could have sworn that the stuff I wrote in my notebook instantly transformed into something that looked like a weird cross breed of Greek and numbers. In fact, now that I think about it, that’s basically what it was. Still, looking back at it, it made about as much sense as baby language. If a baby tried to explain, in their own words, what we did in class today, I think I would probably understand it better than trying to read off those pages. Suffice it to say, I just kind of fiddled around for a while and then cruised around the intricate network of highways that exists in my mind.

Being a college professor must be pretty cool. Heck, I would mind be payed to just kind of prattle on for a few hours about things that I really understand. What with TA’s to answer questions, I would feel something like a supreme being with powers that no one else in the world has. I could test people on their knowledge of my subject material at whim. As far as I’m concerned, getting good grades in a subject does not necessarily have any bearing on one’s actual expertise in that field. Just because I memorize some fact doesn’t mean that I understand it. There certainly is merit to drilling things into people, but there’s no way to bore understanding into someone’s head. It often takes a goodly while for important things to click in my head. Fortunately, once they do click I no longer have any trouble with them for the rest of my life. Basically what I’m ultimately going to get at (and I’ll skip the entire chain of thought that leads me here) is that I only want to learn things that I’m interested in, and usually Wikipedia has me covered for that. And that, my friends, is all there is to it. I don’t want someone to teach me, I don’t want to be tested, and I don’t want homework. Anyone who knows about Calvin’s intense interest and subsequent wealth of knowledge about dinosaurs can see this principle hard at work. Calvin has no use for anything at school, but has such a vast understanding of dinosaurs that he could probably make a profession out of that.

I’m just sick of school. One would think that thirteen years of it would be enough, but no. So far I have spent thirteen out of eighteen years of my life at school. And right now, I’m still learning all the same sort of junk I’ve been learning my whole life. I’m still not into anything specialized in my field of interest (I still don’t really know what that is). I think I shall just run away to Madagascar, where I can frolic in the wild with the lemurs. I really do like lemurs. Right now I feel like a nap. Good heavens, I can’t take much more of this. So for now, I guess this is the end.

The End