Edumacayshun: Brief notes before the end times
So, I'm having some scheduling issues for next year, and these issues are being made more urgent by the fact that next year is The End. This is It. I'll be a senior. And assuming things go well and I'm not put on surprise!probation by the MLK Program, I should be on track to complete my final year at Ithaca College and graduate in roughly a year from now (what!).
Which brings me to the Problem.
I do not, under any circumstances, want to take 18 credit hours (the maximum) again. Ever. I can do it, and I have been doing it and pushing myself to the absolute limits of sanity since sophomore year. Spring of freshman year was the last time I took 15 credits; which I vowed never to do again because I found it extremely boring. I was taking mainly intro courses. Taking 18 credits above the 200 level? Different story. Spiritual death. I'm sick of giving myself too much and hysterically crying because I don't manage my time well enough and create disaster scenarios for myself. This has been the consistent pattern since sophomore year. But I keep doing it.
Why?
Partly because I'm a perfectionist/I have gotten by thus far doing it/I have gotten this crazy idea in my head that I need to be "practical" and have been balancing courses I want to take with courses I think I need to take to increase my profitability as a potential member of the workforce. This is why I have subjected myself to such curricular fare as "Writing for the Workplace," "Proposal and Grant Writing" or "Feature Writing." This is not to say I haven't learned valuable skills from these classes - I have. But I can't help but wonder if I would have been happier if I'd taken classes dictated by my interests, rather than dictated by what the capitalist marketplace presumes are the best courses?
I say this because next fall, I'm cramming in courses I need to graduate from the Writing Program (a creative senior seminar), which I'm complementing with Writing the Short Novel. There is another course being offered I am really interested in on an experimental basis, Food Writing. I'm signed up to take this course. I'm also signed up to take Magazine Writing and two politics electives why didn't I do that politics minor.
However, this puts me up at 18 credits, which I swore never to do again.
Magazine Writing is not being offered again, as far as I understand, in the Spring semester. This is the last opportunity I may have to take this course.
But in light of a discouraging internship search, the largest question on my mind right now is: Why bother?
The whole reason why I'm taking these writing courses is because they're "resume boosters." Supposedly, they'll increase my chances of getting a job. But, judging from my abysmal internship search, these classes can't even get me an internship. So now they're supposed to help me get a job? Somehow, I don't think so. And I'm seriously doubting Magazine Writing's going to be a huge game-changer.
The politics course I want to take, Unthinking Eurocentricism, is exactly the kind of intellectual work I've been yearning to do for about a year now. That aching has been getting stronger in recent months. I won't have a chance to do this again -- especially since it's a special topics course (and I'm a senior). And after college, when will I get to do this intellectual work and think about what's important to me? Probably never...
Right now, I'm signed up for all six courses. Eighteen credits.
Part of me wants to take the hedonistic route and drop Magazine Writing well, actually, all of me wants to drop Magazine Writing. I'm really not sure how it's going to benefit me. I already go to a liberal arts college in Central New York in an unprofitable major...I'd say all chances of post-collegiate employment are already shot. Maybe I should just do what makes me happy for a change.
Which brings me to the Problem.
I do not, under any circumstances, want to take 18 credit hours (the maximum) again. Ever. I can do it, and I have been doing it and pushing myself to the absolute limits of sanity since sophomore year. Spring of freshman year was the last time I took 15 credits; which I vowed never to do again because I found it extremely boring. I was taking mainly intro courses. Taking 18 credits above the 200 level? Different story. Spiritual death. I'm sick of giving myself too much and hysterically crying because I don't manage my time well enough and create disaster scenarios for myself. This has been the consistent pattern since sophomore year. But I keep doing it.
Why?
Partly because I'm a perfectionist/I have gotten by thus far doing it/I have gotten this crazy idea in my head that I need to be "practical" and have been balancing courses I want to take with courses I think I need to take to increase my profitability as a potential member of the workforce. This is why I have subjected myself to such curricular fare as "Writing for the Workplace," "Proposal and Grant Writing" or "Feature Writing." This is not to say I haven't learned valuable skills from these classes - I have. But I can't help but wonder if I would have been happier if I'd taken classes dictated by my interests, rather than dictated by what the capitalist marketplace presumes are the best courses?
I say this because next fall, I'm cramming in courses I need to graduate from the Writing Program (a creative senior seminar), which I'm complementing with Writing the Short Novel. There is another course being offered I am really interested in on an experimental basis, Food Writing. I'm signed up to take this course. I'm also signed up to take Magazine Writing and two politics electives why didn't I do that politics minor.
However, this puts me up at 18 credits, which I swore never to do again.
Magazine Writing is not being offered again, as far as I understand, in the Spring semester. This is the last opportunity I may have to take this course.
But in light of a discouraging internship search, the largest question on my mind right now is: Why bother?
The whole reason why I'm taking these writing courses is because they're "resume boosters." Supposedly, they'll increase my chances of getting a job. But, judging from my abysmal internship search, these classes can't even get me an internship. So now they're supposed to help me get a job? Somehow, I don't think so. And I'm seriously doubting Magazine Writing's going to be a huge game-changer.
The politics course I want to take, Unthinking Eurocentricism, is exactly the kind of intellectual work I've been yearning to do for about a year now. That aching has been getting stronger in recent months. I won't have a chance to do this again -- especially since it's a special topics course (and I'm a senior). And after college, when will I get to do this intellectual work and think about what's important to me? Probably never...
Right now, I'm signed up for all six courses. Eighteen credits.
Part of me wants to take the hedonistic route and drop Magazine Writing well, actually, all of me wants to drop Magazine Writing. I'm really not sure how it's going to benefit me. I already go to a liberal arts college in Central New York in an unprofitable major...I'd say all chances of post-collegiate employment are already shot. Maybe I should just do what makes me happy for a change.