Deadlines and Dorm Rooms: That Time

There is a general consensus on campus that it’s getting towards that time. That time nearly everyone shows up to class late – a little later every day. That time when midterms are still happening (I have one Friday) but final projects also have to be kept in mind. That time when regular schedules and sleep have become a fond dream that’s increasingly hard to remember. That time when you say you’re preparing for the final push, but the truth is you’ve been slowly slipping and the push just gets you back to where you were in the first place. When people ask you how you’re doing, you just say “oh, you know – it’s that time of semester,” and they nod and give a sympathetic laugh of understanding.

To be honest, a lot of these things don’t apply to me. I was late to a couple of things yesterday, but that’s mainly because it’s April, and it was snowing. It was snowing when I got up at five, and it stopped shortly before I went to bed at nine. ROTC was cancelled because of the weather, so I had more time, but I forgot how long it takes to put on boots and a heavy coat and trudge through the snow. Hopefully things will be back to normal today – well, whatever normal is.

My schedule and semester resolutions are still, for the most part, intact. I won’t say I haven’t broken any of them, but I’ve stayed pointed in about the right direction. I’m still sticking to my sleep schedule, although it takes a little longer to get up lately. I’m making progress in independent study; this morning I was doing interrogatives in Greek. I’ve slacked off on a few things, but I’m still checking off almost all the boxes on a regular basis.

The thing that’s changed most, the way I know it’s that time, isn’t whether I check the boxes, but why. At the beginning of the semester I did it because I was excited about it; I didn’t want to do anything else. Now I do it from obligation, because I’ve determined to do it and I know I should. I don’t have enough energy left to be excited – which is problematic, because working on various projects is generally what gives me my energy in the first place.

ROTC being cancelled gives me two days in a row to go through my normal morning routine, which has been helpful in regaining some of that excitement, especially since I had ROTC most of the weekend and so didn’t have time to rest fully then. We’ve now had our PQS (Personnel Qualification Standards) boards for the ROTC freshmen. PQS boards are kind of like the TAKS test; you can fail the first time and still be okay, but everyone gets extremely nervous about them in any case. Everyone in my platoon passed, though, so we’re more or less home free.

Besides ROTC, I went to church on Sunday as always. After the service they had their college student lunch, which involved pizza and a short discussion. It was nice to meet a few more people. The main event of my weekend, though, was the fact that on my way to ROTC on Saturday, I managed to parallel park an SUV in one move (without hitting anything) my first time driving it. I’ve had to parallel park properly only about twice since my driver’s test; there was a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

To wrap up, I thought I would overview a few of the different class formats we have here. If this were a normal Tuesday, it would start with Naval Science (ROTC), which mainly involves a lot of GI PowerPoints. Depending on the LT teaching, you will either have the PPTs read to you, or you will do some practice problems, or you’ll have drawings on the board to elaborate on the PPT.

After ROTC, I have History, which will also involve a PPT, but one without any words on it which includes only pictures and primary documents to supplement the lecture. The lecture will last the entire hour, with a few pauses for questions in between. Then I’ll go to Arabic, which as a language class is formatted much more like a middle school or high school class. We may do a couple of grammar exercises, and then we’ll discuss the topic of the week (oil in the Gulf States) with help from video clips or political cartoons in Arabic.

After Arabic I’ll go to my Atheism seminar, which is a two-hour long discussion broken up into comments on student presentations and some background information from the professor. As you can see, there’s quite a range of styles. All Harvard classes have a discussion section in addition to the normal class hours. I had my Atheism section yesterday – we’re beginning Freud. Being in college and not middle school, we ended up in an excited argument over whether psychoanalysis employed the scientific method properly.

As you can see, it’s going to be a long day, and I have a Bible study and Worship Team rehearsal after all that, both of which I’m leading, so I bid you a fond farewell. If you’re having a relaxed week, think of me; if it’s that time for you as well, good luck!

Pictures:

It was Spring.