I get strangely excited every time the course guide for the next semester is available online.\u00c2\u00a0 I wish I could say that this is what marks me as a nerd, but if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m being honest, I get excited about far nerdier things than the course guide (marching bands, office supplies, the smell of books).\u00c2\u00a0 I like the feeling of possibility in the new course guide.\u00c2\u00a0 I get the feeling, a little flutter somewhere between my heart and stomach, when I first print out my schedule of new classes\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat feeling before you are steeped in research and deadlines, that great openness, a new beginning.<\/p>\n
It may seem absurd to wax poetic on the course guide, but for me the guide is indicative of that starting over point that we are lucky enough to get every first class meeting. \u00c2\u00a0Syllabus week is famously boring, but there’s also something thrilling about the textbook list and schedule that stretches into the future, providing a definite plan. \u00c2\u00a0This is something unique to college.\u00c2\u00a0 Once we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re out in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real world,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have chances to start over, to learn things we never would have dreamed of, to fulfill that childhood hopefulness for the college experience once every fourteen weeks or so.<\/p>\n
So when I logged onto Wolverine Access last week to find that the course guide was available, I was first greeted with my familiar feelings of optimism and the adventure of finding unexpected exciting classes (I warned you, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a nerd).\u00c2\u00a0 But as I began sorting through meeting times and how many classes I wanted to take and figuring out credits, I was struck with a sort of despair.\u00c2\u00a0 This will be my last semester at the University of Michigan.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, my enthusiasm had disappeared.\u00c2\u00a0 Two things occurred to me: one, I will never be able to take all of the classes I would like to, and two, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really happening.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m really going to graduate.<\/p>\n
I transferred to Michigan my sophomore year.\u00c2\u00a0 It took me one semester to not feel like a freshman and another semester to really get the hang of it and feel like I belonged here.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, three years later, I never want to leave.\u00c2\u00a0 I am so excited to go out and start my career and put what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned to use, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a part of me that knows that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll miss seeing my best friends every day in the lobby of the Walgreen and being able to geek out about Tennessee Williams with professors and classmates.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, I finally feel like a major part of a major program.\u00c2\u00a0 I have friends telling me every day not to graduate, and sometimes, I really wish I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always loved school.\u00c2\u00a0 I was the kid who woke up at 4 a.m. on the first day of second grade, trying to shake my parents awake because I was afraid I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be late.\u00c2\u00a0 Soon, it will be my last first day.\u00c2\u00a0 And while I know it means I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m taking a step toward a (hopefully) awesome career doing what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always known I wanted to do, it also means I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve really got to make it count.\u00c2\u00a0 So if you see me glued to my computer screen the next couple of weeks, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind me.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just taking one final walk through the pages and pages of possibility that is the course guide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I get strangely excited every time the course guide for the next semester is available online.\u00c2\u00a0 I wish I could say that this is what marks me as a nerd, but if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m being honest, I get excited about far nerdier things than the course guide (marching bands, office supplies, the smell of books).\u00c2\u00a0 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1893,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1892\/revisions\/1893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}