For Those Who Feel The Need To Share All of Their Banal Details Part 4- Page 95

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:05pm

I may be having a small academic identity crisis.

[Atrias]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:06pm

Uh oh. What kind, Em?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:13pm

Well, I went to the second class of my required major seminar today. Because the major I've chosen is so new and... kind of fluid, there's a lot of focus on nailing down just what it is, and ironing out various theories and conceptions. (I'm an American Studies major.) I know I chose it for all of the right reasons: I can study what I want without having to go through the process of creating a combined major, and without the limitations declaring a single-disciplinary major would have forced upon me. However, it's consistently emphasized that one of two things can happen with interdisciplinary fields: you can come out of your undergraduate career feeling totally fulfilled and ready to go do whatever comes next, or you can feel very... academically free, yet confused and overwhelmed and scattered. One of my biggest concerns that came to light as I started this year and realized I was halfway done with college was that I'll graduate and feel like I'm not properly trained or prepared to DO anything. I feel like it's a weighty responsibility to take on something where I'm really in control of how well prepared I end up, because I've taken on something that is much less formulaic than many of my other options. I have to choose a path that'll allow me to come out feeling like I've done enough and been properly trained to go out into the world. It's not something the program is automatically going to give me.

And then there's the whole notion that by even making a decision at all, while I'm studying something I've always had an affinity toward, it causes me to let go of my first true academic love, and that I'm running out of time to pursue it, ever.

I guess it's not so much a crisis as it is reluctance to trust my instincts and lack of self-assurance. I'm scared of screwing up, or making the wrong decision.

Updated On: 9/13/06 at 04:13 PM

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:14pm

I dropped the class that was making me insane.

Thank God.

I was going to take another class in place of it, but my adviser told me that I shouldn't considering I started college with 24 credits.

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:14pm

... and I just double-posted. Updated On: 9/13/06 at 04:14 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:17pm

Wow, that's a lot of credits. Good choice. :)

I'm eating cookies.

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:20pm

Emcee, I am so sorry for initially looking past your post. You're a wonderfully bright, savvy, intelligent girl, so I'm sure you'll be fine in the "real world," regardless of if you've had any specific training.

Wow, I feel surprisingly great right now. Two of my friends in the same class were apparently crying over it last night and might drop it as well. I hope the professor realizes that the amount of work is outrageous, ESPECIALLY for someone whose schedule is extremely English heavy in the first place.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:23pm

Heh, don't be sorry! :)

I just feel like I need to be here to learn how to DO something, rather than just flittering around throughout some academic fantasy. I like my classes and yes, I love school, but sometimes I think that's not enough. I guess I'm also extremely concerned with how I'll "look" to people in the future; like, to say I have a degree in whatever, concentration in whatever.... how are people going to regard that? What do I need? I certainly don't want the world to think I have a bs degree in something loosely strung together and illegitimate, even I go to a school that played a big part in the field's formation. It almost seems that studying what I love will make things more difficult and more work in the long run, or... at least more than would taking a traditional route. But being in this to please the world is stupid, it's not about that. *fret*

What class was it?

Updated On: 9/13/06 at 04:23 PM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:26pm

Emcee, if YOU are unprepared for the real world and a future career, then I have no hope.

A certain program on my computer isn't working and it's making me nuts, because I *need* for it to work.

I have a stupid paper to write for tomorrow. It's just pointless busy work (6 pages of self-reflection) so I have no motivation to start, because I see no academic value to the assignment at all.

Updated On: 9/13/06 at 04:26 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:28pm

Busywork makes me very, very, VERY angry.

[CanadianSnowbird]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:33pm

I think that's the problem with many of the open majors. Unless you're in a very specific field you're going to have many options and won't be sure which direction to go. You still have two years to start investigating where you can go and where you want to go. You may even end up in a career that has nothing to do with your major. Unfortunately university is the time where you're forced to grow up and decide what you want the rest of your life to be, and that can also change twenty years from now. If you're continuously changing your mind, that's ok, just start to find your path. You've already made the first step with declaring a major, it's just all overwhelming now. But once you find what you want everything is soooo much easier. That's the problem I had last year, and even though I've only had three days of classes, I know I'm in the right place.

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:36pm

It was some Honors seminar course - "The Cultural Nature of Language." Its credits didn't even go toward my (potential) English major.

[Chloe]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:45pm

I'm glad that's off your back now, Lexi. It sounds like you made a good decision there.

Emcee, if you're loving your classes and studying what you want to study, that will all be reflected in your grades and evaluations, which I think will ultimately be more important than your exact major. It's kind of sad that apparently you all *do* have to worry about what you're preparing yourselves for so much more than my flaky generation did.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:47pm

Em, if it makes you feel any better, I'm in a somewhat practical major and still feel directionless. I totally sympathize with a lot of what you're going through, though.

Congrats, Lexi. Sometimes it feels great to drop a class that you know is going to be way more trouble than it's worth.

[Plum]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:47pm

Mmm, liberal arts degrees. So yummy and so utterly impractical in any direct way. But then again, if education was just about career training we'd still be in the apprenticeship system, wouldn't we? I'm tired of worrying about that stuff, so I'm going the "one day at a time" route. Right now I need to do some reading and go to dinner.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:48pm

In my opinion, as the years go by, I see less and less of the importance of what specifically you major in...unless it's engineering or something.

I mean, my sister went to med school and yeah she majored in bio...along with people who majored in English, math, archeology...

I think it's a lot more...getting a degree in anything, as opposed to specifics. Or maybe specifics come much more into play in grad school or something.

In terms of preparing...I think internships can really help prepare you better than almost any class.

Lexi, 24 credits are absolutely insane. How many are you taking now? I feel like the 17 I'm taking are a bit on the heavy side...this is your first semester right? Do you really feel you need to overwhelm yourself so much when adjusting itself is so overwhelming?

ETA: Ah, I see. Yeah, 16 credits is fine, but if you have the 24 and you wanna stay in college the 4 years, dropping those credits is a good idea.

Updated On: 9/13/06 at 04:48 PM

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:51pm

No, I STARTED college with 24 credits, thanks to AP scores. I was taking 16 credits (the "normal freshman load" at NYU) this semester until today. I was going to add a class in place of the one I dropped, but my adviser advised against it as I already have 24 credits under my belt.

Thanks, Ash. :) Two of my current classes are boring, required ones, and the other I'm kind of indifferent to, so I'm looking forward to next semester already. I'm thinking of taking an intro to psych or intro to sociology course. Mmm.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 4:55pm

Now time for be to bitch majorly, which I decided gets a post on its own.

so let's talk my toilet saga.

first, it gets clogged. Not a huge issue once we get a plunger handy.

Next, the flusher stops working. A bit of a bigger issue. Still, in the suite I'm in, the suite connected to my room through the bathroom has their own toilet, so they let me use theirs. Granted my roommate didn't realize that and kept using the toilet which wasn't making the bathroom pleasant, but we just got that fixed yesterday, not the end of the world.

But today...OMFG. My alarm doesn't go off, which isn't tragic...I don't have class till 2 but wanted to be more productive. Oh well. Take my shower, and am pretty much ready to leave a bit early for class to take care of stuff. use the toilet, flush and...boom...flood. ALL THIS WATER starts pouring out of the top of the toilet. The bathroom is flooding. My room is flooding.

I run downstairs. They say they'll call someone and give me a pump, and I should go pump out the water now.

Great. Pumping takes a while, someone comes in, it's already 1:30...pump stops working. I think maybe it's because it's full. Oh, and the wheels fell off, so pushing it is a bitch. Bring it back downstairs to dump, take it back up, still not working. the Reslife dude who was really pissing me off had me test the plug which worked and he was like "yeah, I think the pump's not working." Me thinking...wow you're one intelligent dude. He doesn't know what to tell me. WHAT? Maybe he has something ele, bring the pump down.

Finally I do that, and oh someone else will bring something and finish the pumping so I can go to class. Great.

thank god it was my Sondheim class and we listened to Forum and I felt better.

But still...the room was really flooding. I'm not paying so much money to live here to never know what's gonna happen when I attempt to flush my toilet. I need to bitch to someone b/c this is just...unacceptable.

As the year goes on, I'm gonna get really stressed and schedule my time, and spending an hour and a half pumping water out of my room is not something I'm gonna expect to leave time for.

*End rant*

[xoxRogue]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 5:10pm

I am in SUCH an incredibly great mood today.

It's odd, considering how tired/sick I felt last night, and how I practically did my entire english paper early this morning and my other essays in the cafeteria when I got to school.

My friend and I were in the library, and somehow we got to "babysit" this crawfish that has been dead for a year and it's all dried out. We gave him a name: his first name is Claudius Billy-Bob. He likes to spin on the table. We were also laughing histerically at things that shouldn't be that funny.

My mom said that she was making tacos for dinner. Yay!!

[caitiesus1522]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 5:47pm

Lexi- isn't it great coming in with so much credit so you CAN drop a class first semester and still be ok? I did it last year and it was so worth it!

I wish my English class was my second class on MWF. My first two are Computer Science and Latin American History with a focus on Dictarships (I didnt know what type of historty class it would be, it was up to the professor...blah). They are so boring...I almost fell asleep in both of them but then English was so interactive and interesting tha I suddenly woke up.

And filing for five hours straight is NOT fun. Oh well...

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 5:57pm

Meh. I don't like all this academic talk. Probably because I'm trying to avoid it. I feel like....I don't have a passion for anything - and definitely not enough of one to declare a major within the field. I didn't come into college with some preconceived idea of what I wanted to major in. So now I'm just supposed to pick something that I kind of like (not love) because I have to? What's worse is that I have to make this decision alone. I don't want to be bitten in the ass five years down the road.

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 6:09pm

I'm watching "One flew over the cuckoo's nest" for class.
I've seen it before- I think in psychology in high school- but it's still interesting.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 6:29pm

I feel like it's way later than it really is. It's only 6:30 and I feel like it could be at least 10.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 6:31pm

Me too. Marching band was hell.

[caitiesus1522]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 6:34pm

Jason's computer is broken. There goes my happiness for the night