Coupon Books and Welcome Pamphlets

It’s a new semester at college for me, and the second half of my freshman year doesn’t look too different from the first. I’m taking this first year to get all the general studies requirements for my major behind me, or at least as many as possible (mainly the lower division ones, the 100 and 200 level courses.) I dropped my history class before even attending the first lecture, because the book list was a focus mainly on minorities during the civil war period. This could be an interesting subject, but the class was supposed to be an overview of the first hundred years of our naton as a whole, and the subject matter did not seem broad enough to cover that topic.

Instead, with the credit hours I freed up, I signed up for an intro to criminal justice course. It was sort of a random pick, since I was encouraged to try something I might never have considered before. This was partly because I was turned down for my choice major for the third time in the application process, so I have decided to look elsewhere for other interests for the time being. I’ve only been to the first lecture so far, so I’m not sure what to think yet. The instructor is a retired cop who seems like he might have lots of interesting stories to tell. I’m looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the classroom is less than ideal. The seats are set up in rows like movie theater chairs, with no desks, and there were people sitting on the floor so I’m not even sure if there are enough seats in the room. There are little tables that pull up that are attached to the arm of the chairs, which would be okay except that I’m left-handed and they’re on the wrong side. Fortunately, I think there are a few left-handed seats (I might have a picture of it up soon so check back later!) so I’ll have to get there early to make sure I can more easily take notes.

Most of my other classes are to fulfill a general studies requirement. A lot of my classes are in the morning too, much earlier than they were last semester. This is good because I get done rather early and have the rest of the day. It’s not so good because I’ve only had three days of school, and I was almost late for my first class both times I had them before nine o’clock. Hopefully, I will be able to get back into the habit of waking up early again.

I’m not really sure what I will do in my third semester. I assume that I will take as many German courses as a I can, since that will be my major. I also want to look into a minor, however, and I’m not sure what to pick. I don’t really like math and science, but a minor focused in one of those two areas- computer science, accounting, business- seems like it would be the most useful in the long run. I might try to find out what it takes to minor in music, what I wanted to major in. However, students who are minoring don’t get to have any studio instruction, which is not only what I think would be the most fun class and the most useful for improving, but was mainly what I wanted to study as a music major; I did not want a theory or history concentration, which are my only options as a music minor. I considered becoming a teacher- of any subject, really- but I don’t want to get an education major. Learning a subject I could teach would probably have more flexibility, especially since in this state I only need a certificate to be able to teach.

I have an online course this semester too, something I did not have in the fall. I’m worried about this one, because I had a hard time remembering my online quizzes for my other classes last semester. It was hard to remember that I had to do them, but I’m not sure if that was because they were online or because no one was telling me to do them and handing it to me in a classroom. Either way, if I stay better organized this semester, it shouldn’t be so bad. It is also a computer course, so it makes sense for it to be online. I’m taking it for a general studies credit, but also to put it on my resume when I look for summer jobs in a few months.

I’m in the same choir this semester, which should be fun. We have a lot of events planned already, including a concert commorating the sinking of the Titanic. I’m not entirely sure why we have that particlar concert, but we are going to learn a twenty minute piece called the Titanic Requiem (I think. We haven’t gotten the music yet). So it’ll be interesting to see where that goes. I want to join a club this semester as well, but I haven’t started looking yet.

I’m looking forward to the first week being over, mainly because I’m tired of being assaulted by people handing out coupon books and welcome pamphlets every time I walk around campus. I wonder if the seniors get tired of that every fall.

This was not a particularly interesting post, but that’s because nothing particularly interesting has happened to me except that my German class is in a basement and there are three men over 60 in it. One of them has already taken this course twice. I understand that some people love college and want to take as many classes as possible, but wouldn’t the same one over and over again just be boring?

‘Til next time.