First Week Analysis

Alright, so here are my evaluations of my classes thus far:

Audiology 1 - Retaking this class from last semester. I think the professor recognizes me, but I'm not sure. Because it's a retake and my old roommate is in the class with me, I'm anticipating that it will be easier to study this time around. So far we've had a 60-point quiz that I did well on. So far, so good.

Audiology 2 - I'm excited for this class. I don't know what to expect of the subject material yet, but our grade consists of 5 exams over the course of the semester. No homework! That's really good for me. The teacher seems to have some common interests with me, so I may ask her for book recommendations sometime.

Family History - This class sounds more rigorous than I anticipated. It only meets once a week, but has a lot of work associated with it. I'll really have to stay on the ball with this one, because the type of work involved is stuff that I can't procrastinate and still do well on. Because of the parameters of the class, I don't know if the research I do will be useful, but it will teach me skills I can apply to families that need the research.

Speech Pathology - The structure of this class is extremely intriguing, and is working well so far. We watch/listen to lectures online, then spend classtime running through "experiments" on our computers together. I really like and admire this professor a lot, so I'm anticipating that this class will go well, even though I'm not sure about liking the material yet.

Writing - This class will be a lot of work, and personally challenging. The subject of the class is writing in religious studies, and the goal is publication. I'm not so sure I want or have anything to publish in the area. It's a smaller class, which is something that will be really good for me. I'm also wary just because sometimes it's an edgy subject for me, because academia often preaches from an agnostic or atheistic perspective, and this professor wants us to treat religion academically... So we'll see how it goes.

I had some meaningful spiritual time at home yesterday, so I want to make sure it sticks. It'll take one step at a time until I'm firmly in the direction I want to go, so nothing feels certain yet, but I think I can get there. I think the earnest sincerity and desire that I've been missing is coming back, so that's the first step; now I need to start doing things and putting faith into action. God is helping me change my heart, and I'm really grateful to Him for that.

As it's the first week of the semester, I'm still getting acquainted with my schedule. It looks like I'll have a lot of unstructured time on campus between classes, and I haven't done very well so far in using that time appropriately. I'm making little baby steps here and there, but I need to do better if I want to survive past the second week of classes. Part of it might be remedied by keeping a log of what work needs to be done when, so I'm trying to figure out a good way to do that. I'm still evaluating which classes I'll likely need to consult monthly with my professors about (like I proposed in a previous post).

Something that's making a big difference in my happiness so far is having people to connect to this semester. I know at least one person in every class! And my friends are more interested in hanging out and staying in touch this semester (I guess that for a couple of them, the last semester was lonely, too). We had a short girls' night yesterday and I really enjoyed swapping stories, listening to each other, being goofs, and just feeling the love and support for each other. My brother is here at school too, so hopefully between schoolwork and friends, I'll be able to fill my time well during my husband's extended hours on campus.

Now that the first week of classes is almost over, I have a better idea of what I need to do in order for this semester to be successful, so hopefully in some measure, I'll attain some kind of success this time around. I'll keep this updated so I can see my progress!