This cold is only getting worse; today a more phlegmy cough developed, and the fatigue seems to be getting worse. I finished most of my reading for today’s classes, but upon waking up decided I was in no shape to attend class and emailed both professors the news. Ruddiman was really nice and sent an email back offering to discuss what I missed and provide me with a copy of the lecture notes. What a guy!
I’m typing this and am pretty much fighting to keep my eyes open, despite the fact that after work this morning, I slept all day to try to recuperate. I think I may need another nap before I can start/finish my homework for tomorrow; I was considering taking one more day off to rest, but it’s really ridiculous how work piles up and I just can’t afford another day off from classes or work. I’m already lagging in completing most of my regular assignments, and missing three classes already has put me far behind—missing another two would put me in a position from which I couldn’t recover.
In general, things seem to have been going downhill since the end of the first week of classes, and I’m pretty sure that that outlook isn’t just the mood brought on by my current illness. I’ve definitely overburdened myself this semester, between the jobs and the classes. Paternalism and Social Power is just way over my head; half the time I don’t even understand what the people are talking about in there, especially lately since we’ve been discussing Nietzsche and Rousseau and Schopenhauer and all this metaphysical garbage. American Revolution is interesting but I’ve fallen behind on the reading, which is not good since the first paper is due Tuesday. Twentieth Century American History isn’t bad, but I’ve fallen behind on the reading in that, too, because it just isn’t terribly appealing to me, and there’s so much of it. And finally, Latin is a bitch, cuz it’s an entirely new language to learn, plus there’s the fact that we were never taught grammar in elementary school like we should’ve been. That makes things tough.
Adding to the difficulties, I can’t drop a class because I’ve only been taking the standard four credits each semester, so if I dropped one this semester, it basically means I’d have to take five in the spring, which is by no means a good trade-off. Learning Objects has already briefed me on the projects for the coming weeks, I simply can’t drop the Apple position, the Argus isn’t even worth dropping since it’s so few hours per week, and Help Desk is my main source of money for school. I’m in a bind, it seems.
Something I need to pick up, though, is a speed-reading class. I read far too slowly to get through the required readings for class everyday. In the past it hasn’t been a problem because a lot of the readings were superfluous or stuff I already knew, but this semester’s classes are giving me lengthy, dense readings that I can’t just skip without risking failing a paper or exam.
So add up all those difficult classes and falling behind in the reading, missing three classes already due to sickness, add on the five jobs, and you get where I am now: run into the ground, not terribly happy, and feeling like all I can do successfully is fall asleep. If this keeps up, it’s not going to be a good semester.
This isn’t the college I remember from the last two years. Which is why it hurts me to write something like this, it does. And I hate complaining about personal difficulties because generally life gives me little to complain about. But I’m sick of the work, sick of the reading, sick of being sick, and generally sick of this year’s patterns of life thus far. I’m just sick.
Fall break: 17 days. Comments are disabled.
