My Dichotomous First Semester

As I'm soon about to start my second semester of grad school next week, I thought I would report on how my first semester went. Let's just say I loved it and hated it. I took two classes, and one of them I absolutely despised and the other I absolutely adored.

The first class was my aesthetics of interactive art class. I know I've already told you a little about this class, but basically, by the end of the semester I was counting down the days till it was over. The teacher was unclear on what she actually wanted when it came to assignments, I only got to know a few students that seemed relatively nice and normal and the other ones either didn't talk, or if they did I didn't want to hear about them. The intellectual hipster dude really pissed me off at the end of the semester with his final presentation, and I was so glad to be done with that class. I wouldn't say that it was a hard class because it wasn't actually. It was fairly easy. Just some reading assignments, a few presentations to do and that was it. But, being in class was agonizing and a huge waste (most of the time I played angry birds on my phone or did reading for my other class). I really didn't learn much from the class, and what I did learn it was from the reading and research I did for the presentations. I came home after that class every time complaining about how I'd want it over already. I like school, but I have never hated a class so much in my life like I did this one. All I can say now is, I'm glad it's over, I'm never taking a class from that professor again (and luckily I don't have to since it was an elective class outside of my program); and if that hipster dude is in another of my classes (which I'm praying he's not), I'm slapping him. No, really, I mean it.

Then there's my other class. I absolutely LOVED it. It was the intro into my program (so that's a good sign that I liked it so much), and my professor was awesome. She was new to the University, but she did an amazing job and I learned so much in class and outside of class. There were a few classmates that bugged me, but I made so many other friends with everyone else that it was easy for me to ignore the few annoying ones. Have you ever sat in a class or been somewhere and you just felt that that was exactly where you needed to be? That's how I felt sitting in that class. After taking that class, I realized that even though I might not know what kind of job this degree will get me or where it will take me in my life, it was something I was supposed to be doing and that if I was dedicated enough to it, it would get worked out in the end.

Let's hope that this next semester is less of the former and more of the latter.