School again
I talked with Angie about school on Thursday and she convinced me to go for it. Granted, she said that actually it was me convincing myself, but I'm claiming it's her so that if something doesn't work out, I can say she talked me into it. Justine also was very pro- me going for it and gave me further reasons. One of them Auto mentioned in a comment.
Reasons why it might work:
1) Part of the reason I may be undisciplined is that it's an audit, not an actual class, no matter how hard I'm trying to pretend it is. I may be able to pull it off if I'm held accountable.
2) Part of the reason I'm struggling with my papers is that they're philological. Papers about Tolkien himself or his literature or his times probably wouldn't be so scary.
3) While Anytime Audit gives me access to the lectures and materials, it doesn't give me anyone to ask questions of or give me the labs that would've had more instruction. Live classes would.
4) Basic Guy, as I now call him, would not be one of my professors. Granted that means Tom Shippey also wouldn't be, which would be sad, but the 'um's would go away.
5) This has been a practice run, a starting point. Maybe it's given me a bit of a foundation for being in school again.
6) The Tolkien class next semester is 'Lewis and Tolkien.' That's the easiest starting point a girl could ask for.
6a) My parents didn't charge me rent in March (because of cleaning up the flooded basement), which pays for almost half the class. If it turns out I take it and realize I can't do school live, I'm not out quite as much money.
6b) If it doesn't work out, of all classes to 'waste' money on, 'Lewis and Tolkien' would be the one I'd feel least upset about.
6c) I already own a lot of the materials for 'Lewis and Tolkien.'
6d) 'Lewis and Tolkien' starts with an introduction to myth, a week on 'The Hobbit,' and a week on 'LWW.' Our busiest time of the semester at work lines up with the easiest weeks in the class.
7) The next class would be over the summer, which would be the easiest time to take a class and is taught by one of the biggest names in Tolkien scholarship.
8) The class next fall is one I'm not interested in (primarily thanks to Basic Guy being one of the professors - the other professor is Tom Shippey, so I would've taken it no matter what it was, but sadly I don't care about the topic enough to also put up with Basic Guy). That would give me a break while having two classes already under my belt, so I wouldn't just stop at that point, since I'd know I'd only have three left.
8a) I was concerned about the thought of a break, but they pointed out that I might want one at that point to actually get to read what I want to read, if nothing else.
8b) A break could also give me a chance to potentially get a part-time job to help me save for Europe. (Hopefully they won't have a class I want that summer.)
9) I feel like there were more, but I can't think of them now, since it's been a few days. But I'm thinking I might try after all.
Reasons why it might work:
1) Part of the reason I may be undisciplined is that it's an audit, not an actual class, no matter how hard I'm trying to pretend it is. I may be able to pull it off if I'm held accountable.
2) Part of the reason I'm struggling with my papers is that they're philological. Papers about Tolkien himself or his literature or his times probably wouldn't be so scary.
3) While Anytime Audit gives me access to the lectures and materials, it doesn't give me anyone to ask questions of or give me the labs that would've had more instruction. Live classes would.
4) Basic Guy, as I now call him, would not be one of my professors. Granted that means Tom Shippey also wouldn't be, which would be sad, but the 'um's would go away.
5) This has been a practice run, a starting point. Maybe it's given me a bit of a foundation for being in school again.
6) The Tolkien class next semester is 'Lewis and Tolkien.' That's the easiest starting point a girl could ask for.
6a) My parents didn't charge me rent in March (because of cleaning up the flooded basement), which pays for almost half the class. If it turns out I take it and realize I can't do school live, I'm not out quite as much money.
6b) If it doesn't work out, of all classes to 'waste' money on, 'Lewis and Tolkien' would be the one I'd feel least upset about.
6c) I already own a lot of the materials for 'Lewis and Tolkien.'
6d) 'Lewis and Tolkien' starts with an introduction to myth, a week on 'The Hobbit,' and a week on 'LWW.' Our busiest time of the semester at work lines up with the easiest weeks in the class.
7) The next class would be over the summer, which would be the easiest time to take a class and is taught by one of the biggest names in Tolkien scholarship.
8) The class next fall is one I'm not interested in (primarily thanks to Basic Guy being one of the professors - the other professor is Tom Shippey, so I would've taken it no matter what it was, but sadly I don't care about the topic enough to also put up with Basic Guy). That would give me a break while having two classes already under my belt, so I wouldn't just stop at that point, since I'd know I'd only have three left.
8a) I was concerned about the thought of a break, but they pointed out that I might want one at that point to actually get to read what I want to read, if nothing else.
8b) A break could also give me a chance to potentially get a part-time job to help me save for Europe. (Hopefully they won't have a class I want that summer.)
9) I feel like there were more, but I can't think of them now, since it's been a few days. But I'm thinking I might try after all.
posted by melilotnfosco | 5:24 PM
2 Comments:
Whoohoo! That's great to hear! All logical reasons to follow your passion :-D And again it seems things are aligned for you to do so. God knew you needed it to be that way before you'll jump in ;-) "Two very enthusiastic thumbs up"
I could totally see not having access to the labs and other students would make a huge difference. There's a lot of learning that happens in those spaces - even learning about how this all works.
And having an actual paper makes a difference. Auditing is certainly something, but it doesn't tell any future schools or employers how much work you put into the course, or how much they can assume that you got out of it. Granted, I'm sitting here having made the decision to go for credit, so it's no surprise what I think. :)
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