December 13, 2008
Hey there everyone, I have survived the semester and, most importantly, finals week. I was truly doubting that this would happen at points during the past week, but here I am, sitting in the Atlanta airport and on my way home for the first time since August. It has truly been a stressful week and my hardest finals week thus far in my college career. However, I feel good about my finals, and I would undoubtedly prefer to have this confidence rather than an easy week. Preferably both, but I’m trying to be realistic here. Now that the semester is done, I can’t believe all that I’ve done. In the midst of throwing out every shred of evidence of my classes, I thought it would be fun to count up the number of pages I was assigned to read over the course of the semester. The final total came to 3,841 and I read every page except for 400 of an over-the-summer autobiography. Some of that count might have included supplements and notes but it is quite close. Campaigns came out in the lead with 1,319 pages assigned to read. I might have been half-asleep when reading some of them, but I read them.
A picture of all of my textbooks from this semester
Getting rid of some of the handouts and readings from my class
I had three take-home finals and one in-class final this week. I like one aspect of take-homes in that I have complete control over them. What I turn in can be as good or as bad as I choose. However, a bad aspect is that they take much more time than in-class finals. One might study for six hours for an in-class and have the three-hour test, but that’s all. Take-homes can take much longer, as you shall soon find out. I got my take-home Rhetoric and Campaign 2008 finals done last weekend, all 8 and 9 pages of them, respectively. That just left me with a 10-12 page Justice final. I should be able to pull that off in a day or two, right? Nope. This paper was the bane of my existence all week. I had to take the role of a legislative aide to Barack Obama and explain, considering the current budget crisis, why my service sit with the Tuckahoe Middle School ESL program deserved to continue being funded solely on the basis of its contributions to a just society. Well, I thought there was no way I could possibly write ten pages on this. But, I started writing Monday evening and then added twelve more hours on Tuesday and finally ended with another twelve on Wednesday as I finished at 4:00 AM Thursday morning. In all, it took me approximately thirty hours to write this one paper. You could never convince me an in-class finally could possibly consume this much time. Oh yeah, the ten pages was no problem, It ended up being sixteen. Whoops. The most amazing thing was that I completed this entire paper on pure stamina and determination, no coffee, energy drinks, nothing. It’s quite remarkable, actually. After editing the paper all through Friday evening, I went to drop off the hard copy before I left for home. They say you learn something new every day and that was true. Today, I learned our academic buildings are closed at 5:00 AM and that you should not waste a trip through the frigid weather to drop off a paper that can’t be dropped off. So, I returned a few hours later and dropped off my final exam. The feeling was priceless.
Turning in my last final!!!!
With the take-homes all written by Thursday, that left me with one more final—Accounting. I knew it was going to be tough, so I wanted to study a lot for it. However, the Justice paper didn’t let me study as much as I wanted, but I was still pleased with my knowledge and retention and especially pleased after the final was over. I thought it went amazingly well. I already found out my grade in Software Tools was an A, so I’m praying for a miracle and the ability to pull off another A in the Business school. I love the teacher and know that for him, the knowledge is more important than the grade, so I would actually allow myself to settle for a lesser grade in his class. Plus, it is simply a very difficult class.
Since finals is such a crazy week, I tried to allow myself a study break every day. Monday was spent going out to eat at Capital Ale House for Dollar Burger Night with friends. Tuesday, my church group went out to eat at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, a classic restaurant with great food. My campus ministers tried to make us smile and give us fun little Christmas gifts. It worked for a short while. Wednesday evening found me making Christmas cookies with the rest of InterVarsity’s core leadership team. Finally, I played volleyball on Thursday night with friends. So, despite the seemingly incessant chaos of finals week, I managed to have some fun.
Eating out at Capital Ale House on Monday
Amidst all of the finals and chaos, I did have other events going on in my life. My grandma has had Alzheimer’s Disease for over a decade and she passed away on Thursday afternoon. My family saw it coming for years, but it did cause a bit of disorganization for a day or two as I tried to prioritize everything. As one bright spot, though, due to two of my teachers making the finals take-home instead of in-class, I actually left four days earlier and I can now be home in time for the funeral.
I need to get on my plane now, so I hope that you have enjoyed this past semester. I will post a recap in a week or two. Until then, I am going to catch up on sleep, hang out with friends, and try to relax for a while… all while enjoying home baked food and Christmas treats. We’ll see if any of that actually happens. Until then, enjoy the holidays and spread some Christmas cheer.
Quote of the Week: “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” -Theodore Roosevelt
Thought to Ponder: Why is it that a donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule will not?
Shout Outs: Henry for driving me to the airport
YouTube Video of the Week:
An interesting take on “The 12 Days of Christmas”
