College Kid.

My schedule is quickly falling into place as I make my way through my first week of this fall semester. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have an 8:00 a.m. health class (that lasts until 10:15) and then Technical Math at 12:00, before heading to work at 1:00. Since it doesn’t really make sense for me to head home between health and math, I bring along my PowerBook so I can catch up on my online English Literature course.

I’ve never been good at English Literature. While I absolutely adore English Composition classes and I often pass time by reading anything I can get my hands on, I really dislike being told what to read and then discussing the passage with a group afterward. I don’t know if it’s the loner in me or what, but I think of reading a story or novel as a personal experience. Each reader is going to glean something different from the passage and that should be left as just that, I don’t feel the need to hash out my feelings or perceptions with others.

Hence my recent post to the online classroom discussion board regarding a character that liked to hunt other human beings: “I felt the character was too stereotypical and I was unable to shake the ‘been there, done that’ feeling I had throughout the entire passage.” Truth be known, this story probably was the inspiration for an episode of Xena.

So while I sit here outside of the library in a little cubby cubicle type setting with my PowerBook, armed with the best of intentions as to complete my English reading assignments, I find myself distracted by the various things going on around me. College campuses world wide are populated with gorgeous men and this campus is no exception to the rule. Now I’m not standing out there like some weirdo with my tongue wagging nor am I trying to pull a Republican senator in the rest room (ew!) but I do appreciate the eye candy and I thank the universe for warm weather so I can see hairy legs.

I’m also finding that I’d rather be reading blogs instead of reading these English Literature assignments. Thank goodness the assignments aren’t due for another week and a half.

The year was 1980. I was starting my first day in the “big school”. As a new seventh grader, I had to make the transition from being the oldest in the elementary school to being the youngest in the our high school, a building the housed and mingled grades 7 through 12.

I remembering worrying about what I was going to wear. Looking back I don’t know why I was worried about it, as I never was nor have I ever been any sort of a fashionista, but having returned from a shopping excursion at the now long gone Penn Can Mall the week before, I was armed with a week’s worth of clothes before anything would need to be washed. I remember arranging my clothes on the other single bed in my room and trying to determine which to wear on each day of the week. I don’t remember what I settled on, but I imagine it was typical of the fashions of the day, perhaps just a little mismatched.

Fast-forward 17 years. Today I’m starting my second full semester of college and I am excited beyond belief. Not knowing what to wear, I’ve gone through my clothes and settled on typical J.P.-wear. My schedule is a little different this time around, with several back-to-back classes on Monday, so my backpack is a little heavy with the books I picked up last week.

Time to learn me some skills.

I would like everyone to take a moment and just relax with me. Take a deep breath. Clear your mind. Listen to the stillness. Yearn for the calm.

Why the tranquility? My dance with “Intermediate Algebra” has come to an end. It is now summer vacation for this college boy. The big guy says I should find a temp job for the next couple of weeks. I agree with him, as I will lose my mind if all I have to do for the next seven weeks is partake in the bon bon brigade.

By the way – I asked the teacher to score my final exam while I waited. I did very well. I only missed the question involving the hectare on the 747.

This is the last week of the summer semester at school. By this time Thursday night I will have completed my Intermediate Algebra final and bagged a pretty good buzz from a couple of brewskis in celebration, because I am naturally a two beer queer.

This class has been an interesting one. Populated with mostly older folks taking their time at the finishing their degree, there has been one woman near my age who has consistently barked out the wrong answer to every question posed while the professor has been squeaking the chalk on the board the entire semester. He could ask “what’s 2 plus 2?” and she’d yap out “5”. I’d then say “4” in a slightly irritated voice, resisting the urge to throw on a Thurston Howell III accent while correcting her. I don’t think of her as Lovey.

The professor likes to give us extra credit tasks with what I call “speed trials”. For example, he’ll write an endless sea of variables, lines, operators and operands and tell us that the first five people to answer the given problem will get three extra points on the next exam. While I can normally answer the question, I must say that I’m not good in the role of Speedy Gonzales. I’ve purposely slowed myself down for this round of college so that I’m sure of what I’m doing and making sure I do it correctly. Give me time, I’ll figure it out. Last Thursday he wrote an equation with several real and imaginary numbers involved and announced, “The first person to answer this question will 5 points added to their semester grade.”

Holy crap.

Of course I froze. I don’t care, I’m already hovering near the top of the “A”‘s so I figured “let them eat cake” and slammed my pencil down, not in the mood to get all imaginary with numbers. Naturally, Ms. Yap was the only one to answer the question correctly. She sure picked a doozy for her grand debut.

So the challenge this week is to enjoy Independence Day AND study for the final the following day.

Who the hell invented exponents? I think the purpose of their creation is to make my Intermediate Algebra class extremely frustrating. I can make polynomials dance with binomials in a sweet tango like nobody’s business. I can divide the friggin’ things, even if I have to shove them hard to make them come out even. But this dividing exponents thing is for the birds. They’re evil. They like to move from the numerator to the denominator position without nary a reason all because the negative sign decided to show up. I have added, subtracted, pleaded and begged for them to move to their right place but all I have to show for my work is a burned up calculator and skid marks on my eraser.

My last foray into the one question that I can’t do on my homework resulted in me determining that there’s six hectares in an airplane seat on a Boeing 747, all because the exponents wouldn’t behave as they were suppose to and get in line. They don’t obey.

I don’t like that.

Shortly after starting my job at the telephone company back in 2004, I mentioned that when one starts on a new challenge, there comes a moment when you finally “get it”: a time in which the scales tip in your favor; a moment when all the puzzle pieces that have been floating around in chaos come together to make some sort of picture. It’s when everything starts making sense.

As a full-time college student at nearly 39 years old, I’ve quickly learned that I have a lot of cobwebs in my brain. After successfully completing my first semester this past spring and currently in one intermediate algebra class for the summer, I’m holding my own but I always feel like I’m sort of hanging on by my fingertips. It had been 20 years since I had last done any sort of studying, and I was really never that serious about the practice to begin with. I guess I had forgotten how to study.

This week has been a turning point for me. I’m finally feeling like I have a grasp as to what’s going on and what’s required to really make the grade. While I’ve enjoyed the school experience a lot, now I’m really enthusiastic about my decision to go back to school.

Tuesday night I spent a couple of hours working on algebra problems for the two homework assignments we have due next week.

Bertha is driving a Yugo southbound on the Northway at 65 MPH. Maureen is driving a Honda northbound on the Thruway at 70 MPH. Bertha is in Plattsburgh, Maureen is in Kingston, 302 miles away. Both left at the same time. At what time will they meet at the New Baltimore Service Area to share a Cheddar Melt at the McDonalds?

Since the homework isn’t due until this coming Monday, many of my classmates haven’t or hadn’t completed the work yet. We had a quiz on Wednesday to make sure we were grasping what we needed to know to successfully continue the course. To prepare, I just did my homework early. Two birds, one stone. It turns out that the quiz problems were identical to the homework problems, just with different numbers.

So now I feel like I’m getting it. And my quiz score validated that point. Maybe I’m just paranoid and should just settle down a little bit.

By the way, the answer to the problem above is “undefined.” McDonalds hasn’t served a Cheddar Melt in these parts in years.

Still quite puffed up from the final grades for the last semester, I eagerly jumped into the swing of school again this morning with my one summer course: “Intermediate Algebra”. The joy of dancing variables will last for eight weeks.

One thing that was readily apparent is that my fellow students are serious students. Most of them are over the age of 30, they all seem to be serious students (whereas during the regular semester there’s some that are not so serious about their studies) and more importantly, three are super woofy. When I told Earl of this last point he said I need to take pictures.

Since this is a 12 week course in an eight week slot, classes are longer and the pace is considerably faster. The teacher seems enthusiastic and people were actually participating in class, so I have to say that I’m quite excited about this little quick burst of education. Whereas last semester I waited for others to participate before jumping in on the discussion, this morning I answered the very first question and thank the universe I was correct.

Let’s see how enthusiastic I am in a week when I’m swimming in polynomals.

When I decided to return to college to pursue a completely different career (but something I am very interested in), I was hesitant. I have to admit that I felt very ‘safe’ in what I had been doing for the telephone company. I worked with a great group of people, I had a handle on what my responsibilities were and tried to do my job to the best of my ability. While my work felt safe and comfortable, I didn’t feel challenged.

It was Earl’s prompting that convinced me that I should take that leap and go back to school for a degree in Civil Engineering. He has more confidence in me than I have in myself. I was convinced that I would be a lousy student, since I was a lousy college student the first time around 20 years ago. I was all worried that I would be this old guy sitting in a room of young folks that were avoiding me like the plague.

I quickly learned that there are a lot of adults heading back to school and that I easily connected with my fellow students. I was a little rusty when it came to studying and quite frankly I don’t know how the young folks do it these days; there’s so many distractions with instant messenger, iPods, cell phones and whatnot, during my first run at college I had a hard enough time dealing with Rock 102 on the radio and Bewitched reruns blaring on the television set.

Nevertheless, I tried my hardest at my five courses this first semester. I participated in class discussions and took the initiative in my drafting classes when I felt I had a handle on the drawing but others around me were struggling.

Today I got my first “report card”. I don’t like to brag, but…

I start my one summer class on Monday. It’s a math class I must take to catch up with the rest of my peers, since I hadn’t done advanced algebra in 20+ years and I needed to take a refresher course this past semester.

In January I was very nervous about starting school. Today I’m actually excited to be starting classes again.

As my first semester as a college student comes to an end, today we had our last regular class in Sociology 101. I have loved this class the entire term and I have to admit that I’m a little sad to see it ending. It has really sparked my interest in conversation and debate as to what is going on the world today. The professor has kept the class interesting. I’m sure there are many taking the same course throughout The Empire State that see it as a requirement, personally I have regarded the entire experience as a delight.

Today was part two of our last exam (before finals). On Tuesday we had the standard multiple choice/true or false/scantron sheet type exam testing our knowledge on several chapters in the required textbooks and the class conversations over the past six weeks or so. I didn’t ace the exam but I feel that I did really well on it. The score from Tuesday’s task was 75% of the exam score. Today’s part made up for the other 25% of the score and it was a group effort.

The class started out with 80 or so students. Over the course of the semester it has shrunk down to around 40 or so. We broke off into groups of six and each group had a simple task: create utopia. Based on all that we had studied, debated and discussed, we were to create what we felt was a utopian society. After 30 minutes, we shared with the class what our community was like and if we gained members we earned more points towards the final, if we lost members we lost points.

Since the division of groups was left up to the students, it was interesting, although very predictable to see how the groups formed and the outcome of their efforts.

The young crowd that sat in the back row the entire semester, listening to their iPods for much of the discussion, formed a society called “Gotham” where there were no restrictions on drinking, drugs or sex.

The religious crowd that sat in the front row the entire semester (and whispered constantly until I ‘accidently’ kicked them in the back of the chair on more than one occasion) came up with a society who’s name escapes me but was focused on family values. They made a big deal about marriage being limited to between a man and a woman. No shockers there.

My group was an eclectic bunch. It was comprised of Maria, who is a mother of three and a year old than me, Sean, the student that tries hard to maintain that “C” while working a full-time job, Samantha, the cross country runner who always has fresh, wet hair, Brigide who made one of her handful of appearances this semester, Yurki, the very chatty 20 something that is not quite fluent in English and me. I was the spokesperson and note taker for the group (another shocker).

Our society was christened “Aipotu”. Given the task of making a civilization in 30 minutes or less (Domino’s couldn’t even deliver one in that amount of time), we were an all green society that home-schooled their children by rotating them through all the participating households (for cross-cultural and intergenerational benefits). The people of Aipotu believed in “live and let live”. The only crime would if you infringed on the rights of another, or if you did not prescribe to the “live and let live” principles. Punishment involved working manual labor (I proposed men had to be shirtless, which garnered smirks from my groupmates) in our planet friendly mines or building windmills.

In the end, no one moved from one community to another. Aipotu earned us all 25 points of this part of the exam. While that in itself was quite groovy, I must say that having an open and honest discussion with my classmates while formulating this backwards version of Utopia was an excellent way to bring this course to a close.

Now to get through the final next Thursday!