University Life 101

So it's that time of year again, where student life on campus enters a sort of haze. A haze of study notes and cramming sessions fueled by caffeine, and panic. That's right midterm season is in full swing for many of us here at the U of S and in an effort to lighten the mood and educate the masses I thought I'd talk this week about the many mishaps that can happen this time of year. The following are in no particular order.

1) The Cramming Crew - You've met them, in class they could be anyone, there's no obvious hints to give them away. They could be anyone, the fool at the back of the room who talks all class, the girl texting to your left. Or even one of the keeners sitting at the front of the room. Come the final countdown hours to the midterm they're all the same. Driven by blind panic in a flurry of paper while they frantically try to review their notes at least once while they're sitting outside the exam room.
Now many people will tell you the cramming is bad. And it is, like over filling a water balloon it only takes one careless move for all that information to come gushing out leaving the crammer sitting over their paper, breaking out in a cold sweat while having blanked on every piece of information they ever knew... including in sever cases their own student number.
2) The Caffeine Head - Unlike the cramming crew as the midterm season continues these people become slowly more obvious. The frantic eyes whipping over the room with the increasingly sever leg bouncing or fidgeting, are as blatant a sign as the empty coffee cups left in their wake. To the inexperienced caffeine may seem like the perfect solution to the slow energy drain that is experienced at exam time... and it can be however, over abuse of it will have a negative result, being too wired to concentrate is as bad as being too tired to study.

Continue reading "Letters of a Procrastinator... Midterm Mishaps" »

Posted by gkh178 at 09:18 PM | Permalink

Murphy's Law says: If everything is going well you obviously don't know what's going on.

These are true true words, and are very applicable to student life. In fact I now have the ultimate example for you. I didn't start the year with a day planner. I didn't have it those first few days of classes when the Prof's were announcing deadlines, and so I wrote all those nice important dates down on the top of my notes and promptly forgot about them. I can look back on September now and say that while there were a number of mitigating factors for why I never got around to re-writing my notes, by the end of the month it was ostrich syndrome at it's best. If I didn't know about the deadlines and the midterms they weren't going to happen... For the record that isn't true. I broke down on the 28th and began deadline hunting. This however led to another issue.
The lack of a sense of time. Rarely do days on a calender mean anything to me beyond " oh look there's a day on the calender". So I made myself a custom calender, it now takes over about 6 feet of my kitchen wall. It's still a work in progress so I'll post more specifically about it another time. Now where was I? Deadlines, sense of time... ah right.
Since the calender isn't full at the moment things don't look so scary. But I know I'm still missing most of my deadlines. I have a midterm today, a midterm Tuesday (my hardest class), and two lab reports to do in between; and that just gets me to the 6th of the month. So where does that leave me after playing Ostrich? With sand in my ears and deadlines running at me faster then I can get them on the calender.
How could this have been avoided? Mike talked to you in his last post about time management skills. Never ever underestimate those skills.
Take it from me people, while not knowing that a car is about to run you down makes life exciting. Being aware of the cars makes it a heck of a lot easier to cross the road. Now I need to finish this ramble and cram.
See you next time,
Gillian

Posted by gkh178 at 06:49 AM | Permalink

Ok so I completely had this awesome post all written up but then I hit a button and I LOST it! So now you guys are going to have to put up with a slightly less awesome first post. I'm sorry :(

Now first things first, who am I? My name is Gillian and I'm a 3rd year Animal Science major. I have an addiction to aquariums and a passion for horses, books, and writing. I also have a Master's degree in procrastination, however the Procrastination department hasn't yet gotten around to printing it off yet. They should, eventually. Hence the name for my posts.

Now that I've told you who I am, I suppose I should tell you what I do... no wait I already covered that. Let's talk about this blog instead. The purpose of this series of blogs are to give you a glimpse into the awesome life of a university student. However as to what I specifically will be talking about... I haven't got a clue. The title is Letters of a Procrastinator after all, I'll think of one eventually, maybe.

Now before I leave and go curl up in bed for the night I suppose that I should actually post something. Well tonight we'll go with the reason why I'm so late getting this post up. I just got home from the Animal Science departments steak night. IT WAS A BLAST!!!! The best $15 I think that I've ever spent here on campus. We had it at the double deuce and the food was to die for! I mean aside from the fact that I didn't have to cook it was plate licking good (I managed to restrain myself from doing so, but is was a close call there for a bit). There was also a whole bunch of silent auction stuff and a 50/50 draw going on. The silent auctions were a blast and there were some amazing items. My friends and I had a hoot out of the bidding wars. I didn't win the 50/50 but even so the night totally paid for itself. I'll be able to chain myself to my desk this weekend without regrets.

Hmmm... I suppose that's all I really have to tell you know. I'll report in again on Oct. 1/2009 with another letter.

Until we meet again,
Gillian

P.S. I can't spell and I haven't found the spell check yet on the blog set-up so please forgive me.
P.P.S. I think that maybe this post might have ended up awesomer then the last... but we'll never know.:p

Posted by gkh178 at 09:26 PM | Permalink