You know those kids who got excited about buying school supplies, spent an hour picking out the perfect outfit for the first day and then couldn’t sleep because they were just so excited about the new school year?
I was definitely one of them.
(Better yet, I was that kid whose mother took her to The School Box to buy, for fun, educational books about history, geography and the like. And, of course, I’ve always been an avid reader.)
I no longer get excited about school supplies, now that there’s an additional $400 for textbooks involved, but I still get genuinely excited about school and the classes I’ll be taking.
That is, until it starts stressing me out.
I have mini-crises before every semester begins and usually end up switching at least one class in my schedule by the end of the first week of the semester. Because I’m “officially” halfway through college — meaning I only have three semesters left on campus (plus one abroad plus possibly two more, if I stay for a master’s degree) —and am kind of already “set” in my graduation path requirements, my crises I’ve already had about this fall have been more intense than before.
The first one occurred two months ago, when I tried to figure out how I could incorporate Advanced Magazine Writing into my schedule without driving myself certifiably insane. I’m still working on that one because I think I would benefit from it.
The second one occurred two weeks ago, when I had this epiphany that I should’ve been taking computer science classes from Day One and spent hours figuring out how to incorporate a minor into my schedule. Then, I actually talked with a College of Engineering graduate and decided it would probably be best, at this point, to learn programming on my own.
The third one’s currently in progress, as I’m trying to incorporate Computer-Assisted Reporting into my time here or this ambiguous fifth year I keep flip-flopping about. Not that I have any idea what I would want to do in that fifth year because my interests are all over the place, but it’s always a possibility. (I’d be doing it for myself, and not for a pay raise or anything.)
Being interested in so many aspects of journalism is both a blessing and a curse (sorry, fellow copy editors, but I couldn’t resist using this tired cliche): There are so many possibilities and areas to explore, but I have to figure out what kinds of skills I want to and/or should learn, what kinds of internships and experiences I should look for and, eventually, what kind of job I want to have. But, again, there’s so much I’d be happy doing.
But I’m not sure if I need to stress myself out by thinking that far ahead yet, so back to myZou I go to see if I can squeeze another class in for this next semester.
Wish me — and my sanity — luck.