It’s seriously already early November, and I just can’t believe how fast this semester has gone so far. I honestly was so terrified returning back to school after taking an entire year off from being a full-time student. Don’t get me wrong, the online intensive Spring and Summer session courses really helped me get back into “school mode.” But still, it’s weird to be back as a student...
It’s so weird to me, I used to be so good at multi-tasking and juggling multiple subjects at once. I mean that’s basically what all of grade school is about. And I was a pretty good high school student. But for whatever reasons, it’s gotten to be so much harder for me handle all these different classes at once. Maybe it’s just having to constantly jump around from assignment to assignment and topic to topic. I much rather preferred doing the intensive courses. Ya, they were definitely stressful because they were cramming a semester’s worth of material into only 6 weeks. Still though, only having to focus on two subjects compared to over five is definitely different. But personally, I enjoy doing deep-dives anyway and am definitely subject to “tunnel vision.”
In part, I think it’s also that everything is so unorganized being remote. My professors all have different standards, and even though they all use the same platform (Elms at UMD), nobody organizes their site the same way. Like one of my professors doesn’t even really post assignments except in announcements, which get’s to be super annoying to have to scroll through and read old announcements to figure out when something is due. Also, rumor has it that professors are giving more work since we’re remote. And honestly, at least for me, that’s pretty true. I think I have a lot more weekly assignments that I wouldn’t have if we were meeting in person. Remote is already hard enough, why make it harder with more work? I mean really...
Monday is the deadline for being able to withdraw from any course; and I think I have to withdraw from Orgo I. I hate to admit defeat, but it’s just been so hard to follow the course since it’s asynchronous. I just feel like I never have time to rewatch all of her lecture videos, and all the extra help appointment times are super inconvenient. Also, my specific professor is known to have her own flare for teaching Orgo since she normally teaches Bio Chem. Like even though it said a textbook was required for the class (I ordered it too), she announced early in the class that we wouldn’t go off of a textbook at all. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t always do the textbook readings for a science class. But having sections in a textbook to refer back to on the specific lesson is helpful, especially when lecture isn’t enough.
I think right now I just have to prioritize finally graduating. I’m a “super” senior now (the fun way of saying I’m taking more than the traditional four years to graduate), and I’m ready to just be done honestly. Especially since all of my friends are off doing graduate school or working full-time jobs. I just feel so left behind sometimes because I’m still finishing undergrad. Also, I‘m just so close to finishing. I only have a few upper level credits to earn and then I’m officially a graduate. So I think I should just focus on the now and get the basics done. Because I want to graduate in Spring 2021 and graduate with an at least somewhat respectable GPA (fingers crossed lol).
So that’s basically where I am right now for school.