In the last few weeks, my brother was married, my father turned sixty, I took my first exam in O-chem and I got summoned for jury duty on my birthday (thanks Illinois!).
Nathan and Ingrida, congratulations!
Papa, also, congratulations! How does it feel to be sixty?
Mendon, congratulations (I am still alive). How was the test?
"not bad. It could have been harder. Let me put it this way, I had enough time to invent emoticons for Cthulhu ( :E ) and for Dr. Horrible ( 8:D ). As you can see, I had plenty of free time."
Bummer about getting summoned for jury duty on your birthday.
"Yeah, bummer."
Two weeks ago, I started taking evening classes at Oakton Community College in order to complete my pre-med requirements. I am taking a physics course and an organic chemistry course. Neither is particularly hard and I think that this would have been the case had I taken these courses in university. However, they both require a fair amount of work. I would argue that this is true of many classes.
What I am finding is that I am differently motivated than I was when in my undergraduate program. In undergrad I worked hard but the value of success meant less to me than it does now. There are a host of motivations that move me to be interested in succeeding. I know that I need to do well in order to get into medical school (though, I have no fear of the MCAT for whatever reason), I am motivated to do well because I am paying directly for my classes, and I have my own typical desire to be a good student. However, I am finding, now, that I am motivated by a force that I never predicted, I feel that I need to prove to myself and maybe someone else, somewhere, that I can work full time and kick ass at classes at night.
Unfortunately, by the time I get to Friday night, when I should be studying, I'm so burned out by the week that I can't focus on school work. It's like eating granola for every meal, there comes a point where you know that you're hungry but you just can't put another bite in your mouth. Your body won't let you. It makes me want to go to bed at 7:30PM on Fridays.
Despite this, and despite not feeling like I have any time in the world, I've been able to socialize a fair amount. Even if it is only getting together in the evening on weekends when I can't absorb any more information. Being this busy is a new experience for me. I have never been so task oriented. I have always sought unstructured time. Yet, there is a certain pleasantness to simply trudging through a 14 hour day. Something about not needing to fill your day almost makes it easier. I have no intention of becoming addicted to working, by the way, but I can see how some people are able to lose themselves in it. You just get up and go and, when you get back, crash until you have to get up and go again.
Hopefully, I'll still be as chipper as I am now in another 10 weeks. I'll try to make periodic posts to keep you up to date. If all goes well, I'll be able to take 2 night classes again next semester (physics II and O-chem II) and then summer will be a biology course or two and maybe an anatomy and physiology course. I've pretty much set myself up for a year of using my vacation time to study for tests (boo).