Mixed Blessings
I've been using a different bag to carry my books lately.
That doesn't sound like a very big deal, but it happened to affect the course of my entire day today. I usually carry my binder, notebook, wallet, keys, phone, iPod, pencils and calculator in this here bag, but this week I've been using this bag and not bringing my binder, only my five-subject notebook and the necessary loose papers. It's a lot lighter and I actually like the change. This morning, though, I got up at 6:30, got breakfast and caffeinated hot chocolate in my little thermos and set out for physics lab. After lab, I was on my way to biology lab when I realized OH FUCK I forgot my lab report from last week at home, in my binder that I usually carry, sitting next to my bed. I also didn't think I had enough time to print off today's lab assignment. So, cursing myself over and over, I went to the hall outside, ran into one of my classmates and found out that the lab was an hour later than I thought. Yes! I could go back home and pick up my work and print the lab!
So that's what I did. I raced to my car, my legs burning the entire time, and made it back to my apartment in time to RUN in, grab my binder, print my lab - rather, hit print and then run in circles as my printer slllowly spat out the pages - and back to my car. I found a parking space, which is a feat in and of itself. By the time I got down to the ground floor, it was drizzling. I had my umbrella, so I brought it out. I got a little over a third there when the bottom dropped out of the sky and it started fucking pouring. So I set my jaw, hiked my bag up to chin-level, cowered under my umbrella and soldered on. It was ten minutes to lab, and I was damned if I was going to miss it. This is fucking dedication, y'all.
By the time I arrived at the door of the biological sciences building, my jeans were soaked all the way up to my thighs. My shoes were filled with water. I saw many girls passing by in flip-flops, immune to cold feet for the rest of the day, but as I had a lab, I had to wear closed-toe shoes. Squelch, squelch, squelch, I walked up the stairs into the lab. I grabbed some paper towels, but was at a loss as to what to do with them. My hair was relatively dry. Take off my shoes and wring out my socks? No. Rub them futilely along my wet denim thighs? No. In the end I wiped the drops of rain off my pencil case and my notebook. When I went up to sign the attendance sheet, I asked how much of the lab we should turn in.
"None of it."
I looked down blankly. There before me, right next to the sign-in sheet, was a box of the printed lab assignments for today. A guy next to me said "Oh, hey, are these for us?" The TA replied "Yes, just for today. We made a mistake in the copy we posted online, so we had these just in case."
We didn't have to turn in our lab report. We didn't have to print out today's lab assignment.
Right after the TAs went over the lab instructions, the girl across from me asked how much we were going to turn in of the stuff we were doing today. I said none of it, because we're not, the point is to do the work and understand the concept. We only have one lab report, and it's for next week's lab. She looked at me blankly and goes "We're just wasting time." I looked back at her and replied "No, we're not. We're learning."
Fuck that and fuck you. This isn't wasting time. This is necessary work to make sure we understand what we're learning in class. Some of the labs later on may be a bit pointless, but this one at least is incredibly helpful. I wouldn't have gotten the concepts down without this work. That's what the labs are for - for learning, not meaningless points padding your grade. If you want to go back to high school and do a bunch of worksheets, knock yourself out. If you want to ditch the lab and try to take the quiz next week without this work, or even take the test without understanding phylogenetic trees and synapomorphies, be my guest. Otherwise, shut the fuck up and do your work.
On the plus side, it took me about ten minutes to do the lab completely and correctly. I did half of the problems ahead of time in the pages. The instructions went something like this:
Draw kinds of phylogenetic trees!
Okay, pick the ones you like best!
Now copy them!
Now look at them!
NOW draw the derived traits!
Then count them!
Then explain why you counted them!
Now tell me which one is best!
I figured out by looking at the insects which ones were placed where on the phylogenetic tree. All of the above questions spanned around five pages, and I did all the work on the first available page without pausing to realize that we were supposed to write every single step along the way on a different page. When the rest of my table was still on the first step, I was calling the TA over to check my answers. As I packed up, my lab partner goes "Are you done already? You're amazing!" in this reverent tone. It was awesome. I stammered a few times and then wandered out into the hall and started laughing. It totally made my day. I rewarded myself with a bagel dog from Einstein's for being amazing.
And then I spent two hours in physics lecture with freezing cold wet feet.
That doesn't sound like a very big deal, but it happened to affect the course of my entire day today. I usually carry my binder, notebook, wallet, keys, phone, iPod, pencils and calculator in this here bag, but this week I've been using this bag and not bringing my binder, only my five-subject notebook and the necessary loose papers. It's a lot lighter and I actually like the change. This morning, though, I got up at 6:30, got breakfast and caffeinated hot chocolate in my little thermos and set out for physics lab. After lab, I was on my way to biology lab when I realized OH FUCK I forgot my lab report from last week at home, in my binder that I usually carry, sitting next to my bed. I also didn't think I had enough time to print off today's lab assignment. So, cursing myself over and over, I went to the hall outside, ran into one of my classmates and found out that the lab was an hour later than I thought. Yes! I could go back home and pick up my work and print the lab!
So that's what I did. I raced to my car, my legs burning the entire time, and made it back to my apartment in time to RUN in, grab my binder, print my lab - rather, hit print and then run in circles as my printer slllowly spat out the pages - and back to my car. I found a parking space, which is a feat in and of itself. By the time I got down to the ground floor, it was drizzling. I had my umbrella, so I brought it out. I got a little over a third there when the bottom dropped out of the sky and it started fucking pouring. So I set my jaw, hiked my bag up to chin-level, cowered under my umbrella and soldered on. It was ten minutes to lab, and I was damned if I was going to miss it. This is fucking dedication, y'all.
By the time I arrived at the door of the biological sciences building, my jeans were soaked all the way up to my thighs. My shoes were filled with water. I saw many girls passing by in flip-flops, immune to cold feet for the rest of the day, but as I had a lab, I had to wear closed-toe shoes. Squelch, squelch, squelch, I walked up the stairs into the lab. I grabbed some paper towels, but was at a loss as to what to do with them. My hair was relatively dry. Take off my shoes and wring out my socks? No. Rub them futilely along my wet denim thighs? No. In the end I wiped the drops of rain off my pencil case and my notebook. When I went up to sign the attendance sheet, I asked how much of the lab we should turn in.
"None of it."
I looked down blankly. There before me, right next to the sign-in sheet, was a box of the printed lab assignments for today. A guy next to me said "Oh, hey, are these for us?" The TA replied "Yes, just for today. We made a mistake in the copy we posted online, so we had these just in case."
We didn't have to turn in our lab report. We didn't have to print out today's lab assignment.
Right after the TAs went over the lab instructions, the girl across from me asked how much we were going to turn in of the stuff we were doing today. I said none of it, because we're not, the point is to do the work and understand the concept. We only have one lab report, and it's for next week's lab. She looked at me blankly and goes "We're just wasting time." I looked back at her and replied "No, we're not. We're learning."
Fuck that and fuck you. This isn't wasting time. This is necessary work to make sure we understand what we're learning in class. Some of the labs later on may be a bit pointless, but this one at least is incredibly helpful. I wouldn't have gotten the concepts down without this work. That's what the labs are for - for learning, not meaningless points padding your grade. If you want to go back to high school and do a bunch of worksheets, knock yourself out. If you want to ditch the lab and try to take the quiz next week without this work, or even take the test without understanding phylogenetic trees and synapomorphies, be my guest. Otherwise, shut the fuck up and do your work.
On the plus side, it took me about ten minutes to do the lab completely and correctly. I did half of the problems ahead of time in the pages. The instructions went something like this:
Draw kinds of phylogenetic trees!
Okay, pick the ones you like best!
Now copy them!
Now look at them!
NOW draw the derived traits!
Then count them!
Then explain why you counted them!
Now tell me which one is best!
I figured out by looking at the insects which ones were placed where on the phylogenetic tree. All of the above questions spanned around five pages, and I did all the work on the first available page without pausing to realize that we were supposed to write every single step along the way on a different page. When the rest of my table was still on the first step, I was calling the TA over to check my answers. As I packed up, my lab partner goes "Are you done already? You're amazing!" in this reverent tone. It was awesome. I stammered a few times and then wandered out into the hall and started laughing. It totally made my day. I rewarded myself with a bagel dog from Einstein's for being amazing.
And then I spent two hours in physics lecture with freezing cold wet feet.