There’s a collective frazzled spirit on campus this week. The days leading up to a break are always a stressful time, and no matter how much anyone tries to avoid it, midterms and papers always seem to line up simultaneously. Personally, my weekend will be divided between a full lab report on the random vs. directed mutation hypothesis in the bacteria Seratia marcesens for Monday, and reviewing for my econ midterm, aka re-doing old PSETS and thinking up every possible question about every possible shift of the aggregate demand- inflation adjusted model to ask in office hours. I wish I could give you a cute college romp in the now-fallen leaves or something, but the reality of going to a school like Wellesley is that it’s a lot of work. Interesting, potentially rewarding work, but time-consuming nonetheless.
At least the view’s nice, walking to the library
That being said, this week has had its highlights. Registration went well, I got into all the classes I wanted for next semester. I always build-up registration a lot in my mind, and spend the half-hour before 8am obsessively retyping my memorized CRN codes. At 8:02, I sigh and relief and wonder what all the fuss was about. I’ve never actually not gotten into a class I wanted to take (knock on wood), which I know is not something that happens to everyone but I think is one of the benefits of a smaller school. Even if I end up changing my mind, I’ve gotten in to classes just by attending the first few days.
So, what classes am I actually taking? Well, next semester is a science double whammy: I’m embarking on my first semester of Organic Chemistry (wish me luck) and I’m also taking Cell Bio, (previously called Cell Physiology, a somewhat more intimidating name possibly more reflective of the nature of the course). I’m simultaneously excited to go into a more challenging level of science and just a little bit intimidated by pushing myself to take these two classes at the same time. So I’ve made some concessions in the rest of my schedule. I’m taking a music course in Ethnomusicology, which apparently involves going to concerts (my kind of class!) And then in lieu of a fourth course possibly a half-credit of independent research in the weevil lab. The professor who runs our weevil lab is on sabbatical next semester, so independent research is still a little up in the air, but for me it’s not so much that I need the credit as that I find the experience super valuable- I get to actually process and retain skills that I only get briefly exposed to in my in-class labs. We’ll see how things work out.
Another highlight of the week is that my chamber music group finally jumped the road block from rehearsal good to “wow, this could be a semi-professional performance of the piece good.” Our first movement of the Arnold Mendelssohn trio is so on point that I practically skipped into Chem lab after rehearsal. (You can listen to this somewhat obscure piece on youtube here). Now its just a matter of getting my solo repertoire to a similar level. The only way to get there…practice, of course.
Anyways, its back to work for me. Our in-class Econ review session is this afternoon and I still have a few more problems waiting for me. All my best to you and as always:
Ever lovely yours,
Eleanor
