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Sometimes I wonder whether I should not have just picked one or the other of my two majors. More than once in my four years (usually as I was gnashing my teeth over some chemistry, physics, or mol gen exam) the thought occurred to me that if I were only majoring in English, 1) I'd probably be done in three years; and 2) I'd probably have a 4.0 GPA. But then I always reassured myself with the thought, "But I wouldn't have a job after graduation." (That argument is failing in the face of the sour economy in which jobs are hard to come by for anyone...so it's off to grad school for me!)
There are boatloads of English classes I wish I could have taken. More creative writing courses, in particular, and maybe more digital media courses. Today my 596 professor told me mine was the best short written assignment she had received from the class, and my H590.04 professor suggested I submit my digital media project from his class last spring for the Digital Media Award for Undergraduate Work. Frankly, though, I know that neither is my best work and that, with more time and effort, I could do a lot better. But I was probably in an o-chem class instead, or physics, or EEOB, or mol gen.
If I had majored only in English, I probably would have done a senior thesis. I never did one because I thought juggling two majors for Honors Contract was quite enough. (And I was probably right.) But I sort of wish I had some sort of culminating paper or project or thing to say, "This is what I worked four years for." Instead, I'll end up with two diplomas, and a ticket to graduate school to be a teacher who will likely never teach 75% of what she learned in college because high school biology is just not that in-depth.
But you know what? I don't really regret double-majoring. I certainly would not give up molecular genetics because it is the cutting edge of biological science. I'm glad I stuck with English because otherwise I think I would have read nothing but textbooks and journals for the past four years, and that would have been a shame. I've been introduced to some amazing works and authors through my studies and I think our English faculty are really top-notch. (Same goes for biological sciences.) And really, English and molecular genetics are not as disparate as people may think; though the subject matter differs, the analytical skills needed to succeed in both are the same. I may not have been able to go as deeply into either field as someone who only has one major, but I maintained and broadened my interests and I believe that is the purpose of university: to cultivate a love of learning. If I could do it over, I could think of three or four other majors I probably would have loved just as much. That said, double-majoring is a lot of work and certainly not for everyone, but I encourage everyone to at least take some courses that aren't required for your major and make the most of their time at OSU.
My mom asked me a good question the other day: "Out of the four places you've lived in the past four years, which was your favorite?" Now, this is slightly difficult for me to answer completely objectively because I have very strong emotional associations with specific location, so my perception of a place is highly influenced by what happens in my life while I'm living there. That said, it's probably a close contest between Neilwood Gables sophomore year and the apartment I'm staying in now. They are about the same size, except now I have the entire place to myself. While I do relish the privacy, I liked my roommate sophomore year and sometimes living by myself can make me a little daffy. Freshman year in Taylor Tower wasn't bad; the only major complaint I have is that it is so terribly far away from everything. My roommates were nice enough, although it was a little strange to have seven people sleeping in one room by the end of the year counting boyfriends. I probably wouldn't choose to live with three other people again, decided mostly by my experience last year. Of course, it was really a combination of shoddy landlord relations, noisy neighbors, roommate issues, several personal hardships, and the complete impossibility of effectively heating or cooling three floors of a townhouse that make me look back on 176 W 9th Avenue with mild horror. Things are going better in this apartment now, but I am definitely looking forward to getting away from campus-area living as soon as humanly possible.
Apparently I've become a minor OSU celebrity, having appeared in the Lantern two days in a row (yesterday for Next Chapter Book Club, today for Jeopardy). And now I am a little worried about being the object of too much attention...well, let's just say that a stranger has contacted me through electronic channels I thought I'd closed off and that makes me a little uneasy. It might just be a coincidence, but I kind of doubt it, as I know this person is in the OSU community. So if I am distinctly laconic on this blog for a while, that is probably why.
In other news, it is still winter in central Ohio, with low temperatures right around freezing. By Saturday, the high will be 85 degrees. The poor bikini-clad denizens of South Beach Oval must be very confused indeed.
I have severe senioritis. Everyone is in a dither about scheduling classes for next fall and I'm just kind of like "Meh," even though I actually need to schedule for summer. But my master's orientation isn't until May, and I doubt I'll be crowded out of graduate level courses, so I'm not worried. I have an appointment next Friday with my honors adviser to fill out my graduation application, my friend's black gown is ready and waiting in my closet, and the weeks slowly tick down for my undergraduate career...
I brought my bike to campus this week for the first time in my four years here, mostly to get to and from the ceramics studio in Hopkins Hall on north campus a little faster. The jury is still out on this idea, since traversing campus on bike is definitely different from going on foot. (Especially in the spring, now that the Oval has once again been transformed to South Beach and there are all manner of flying objects whizzing through the air.) It's also handy for getting to and from Target in the Lennox center without waiting for the bus.
I'm essentially taking my summer vacation this quarter, as my real summer break is exactly one week long. It's a strange feeling, knowing this is my last ten weeks as an undergraduate. It's also funny hearing friends bemoaning midterms and homework when I have very few of either. I'd ask why the rest of my college career wasn't like this, but the answer is simple: if I'd taken the past four years as easily as this quarter, I definitely wouldn't be graduating on time!
Two months and counting...
Over winter break my classmates and I went to London for ten days, which was a tremendous amount of fun. Among other places, I went to Kew Gardens, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the British Museum, Stonehenge and Uffington, Bath and Oxford, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Harrod's, and Les Miserables at Queen's Theatre.
Unfortunately, this was probably the high point of winter quarter for me. The excitement of starting college was wearing off and though my classes were still fun, I was quickly realizing that all of the "friends" I had made really didn't know me well at all. A lot of the freshmen I've talked to in years since have reported the same sort of experience. Fall quarter everyone is running around meeting people, but by winter quarter people are less interested in hanging out except with their more select group of friends. I did not manage to settle in with new friends as well as others, and my old friends from high school seemed to largely disappear, even the ones who were at OSU too. I don't blame them for this, it just sort of happened, but it did seem to usher in a low period in personal life.
My classes, on the other hand, were not bad. For the first two years I slaved away through the galleys of general and organic chemistry and entry-level physics, so not much interesting happened there, but I did get started on my English major courses. Winter 2006 I took English 265, which was beginning creative fiction writing. The class gave me the opportunity to explore some personal issues through writing and revealed things I didn't even know had been brewing under the surface. Writing has always been therapeutic for me and there wasn't any pressure to write a masterpiece, so it was a good choice.
On a lighter note, I also discovered very quickly the fastest ways to get across campus to avoid the biting cold, and the importance of warm fuzzy boots.
Even my "last" quarter is bringing plenty of firsts. My first studio class, Art 342 (Wheel Throwing), is proving to be more time and labor-intensive than expected, but so far it is fun and satisfying. It's good to practice what eluded me in my high school ceramics classes.
I am also using e-Reserves for the first time in my English 596 class to view video recordings of the musicals we are studying. e-Reserves works like physically reserving an item, which means only one student can view each title at once. You also have to specify start and end times that are completely inflexible. Literally, if you miss your reservation start time by one minute (like I have done), you are out of luck. WebCheckout does not work on the current version of Firefox or on Macs, and I seem to be running into a glitch even using Internet Explorer in which the movie doesn't always load properly, which means I have to make a new reservation when the original allotted start time passes. I have to say I am distinctly unimpressed with this system, like much of OSU's technology, to be frank. (Don't even get me started on Webmail...no, I don't want to keep my OSU e-mail for life after I graduate!)
And another first since 1922...a semester schedule for OSU. That's right, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved the switch to take place no sooner than 2012. I will be long gone, and I think it is probably for the best in the long run. (While I did enjoy the opportunity to take more classes, I'm not sure if I have necessarily learned more in the rush to cram in six midterms in one quarter.) See the Lantern article here.
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