Afternoon, everyone!
It is rather cold and blustery here, and I think I even spotted some transient snow on the way over! This is why I am currently hidden away on the fourth floor of the Science Center, in the Psych department—it pays to know the building well enough to know where it is warm :). Anyway, I’m sorry to say that this isn’t going to be one of my thoughtful weeks—it’s currently my second “arrow” week, and I’m just happy to be producing mostly quality work and not getting sick :). When you come to Wellesley, the deans give you a page on which to write down all of the assignments/tests due for the entire semester, and then I pick the three worst weeks when everything is due at once and put arrows next to them. I’ve been preparing myself for this particular week since halfway through last month :).
Not to say I am infallible—I very recently sent my friend Alice an email that consisted of “NO WAY. He extended the deadline to next Tuesday? I stayed up until midnight on Friday doing that!!” She very appropriately laughed at me. I haven’t missed an assignment worth more than 2 points yet this semester though, so I am still pleased with myself :).
In non-school news (heehee), we had our first swim meet on Saturday! It was the Betty Spears Relays, which means we get to swim all of our usual events, but with friends :). It was a marvelous meet, with high energy, competitiveness, sportsmanship, and fun, and our seniors say it was the best Betty Spears meet they had been to in their years here. Moreover, though our team is small this year (we’re down to 19), we are super fast, and ended up wining 11 out of the 12 relays, which we’ve never done before. Have I mentioned that though swimming was great last year, it’s absolutely wonderful now?
One of the downsides to meets starting, however, is that I now have to make up the practice I miss on Mondays on Monday morning :). Our coach Bonnie is probably the most flexible coach on campus about when we can make up practices that we miss due to class, and I very much appreciate how I can do everything I want to do academically and still swim. Nevertheless, waking up at 5:30am two mornings a week (and three mornings this week), is a bit rough on the college lifestyle ;). I’m making it through though, and staying awake at 8:30am for Psych!
Monday evening was busy too, as I finished Neuro Lab at the Science Center, went to a meeting about engineering opportunities at Wellesley, left early and ran to weightlifting at the Sports Center (since I missed weightlifting in the morning since I was swimming), ran back to the Science Center for a neuroscience tutoring session, went and had dinner at 8pm at Stone D, then walked back to Munger to study and go to sleep. It reminds me of last year fall semester, when I didn’t have everything completely sorted yet and I literally ran from event to event, which I don’t do as much now. As I mentioned to a friend, I really should have picked my college based on the proximity of the Science Center, Sports Center, and food (though with a bike, they’re only 2-6 mins apart depending on whether you’re going up or downhill!)
Despite all of the running around, I’m glad I went to the engineering session on Monday. I have been talking to Dean Stephen about engineering opportunities, and she directed me to a great site Wellesley has on what we can do to get some experience in something most of us have never done before. We can go to MIT, or Olin, or do many other things, but what I’m really excited about this year is that Wellesley itself is offering a class this spring, Extradepartmental 120, that’s called Making a Different through Engineering. Way back last year in the fall, I attended the Wilson Lecture about MIT’s D-Lab, one segment of which aids people in foreign countries via the development of bioengineering technology. This means that SCIENCE, esoteric as it normally is, is improving people’s lives worldwide, which is something that I was and am very excited about :). Extd 120 is modeled on this idea, though it will no doubt be a different beast :). Moreover, Professor Banzaert, who’s teaching the class, has decided to select who will get into the class via having us all submit essays, which is such a good idea, as it greatly increases my chances of getting in (I’m not very good at typing numbers in quickly, which is how the registration process works normally.) So in sum I’m very excited to try out engineering and applied science, because though I didn’t like math and physics in the past, I’m now enjoying linear algebra and programming MATLAB, so there’s hope for me yet!
I also happened to write my 4-year plan this week, because when I’m supposed to be really busy I procrastinate by studying things that aren’t immediately due but which I should have done anyway :). (As a side note, I mentioned this to Audrey, and she said that doing math homework instead of studying for psych is certainly one definition of “rebellious” ;P)). It took me a bit, and I still have one class that I’m going to have to force in somewhere (plus, I’m not sure if I’m thesising or not, and then I’ll have to make room), but I’m proud of myself for pushing more humanities than are required for distribution requirements in those 32 boxes. I’m also set for the Neuroscience major, might be able to minor in something, and will fulfill the pre-med requirements. I still don’t want to be a doctor, but it never hurts, right?
So after I finished with that, it was back to studying for the Organic Chemistry test (… which I messed up on the first page. Who forgets how to do a combustion reaction? This person, lovely readers, this person,) writing the Psych paper that wasn’t actually due, studying for the Psych test (which is tomorrow!), doing math homework, doing chemistry lab homework, doing my fourth Neuroscience problem set, swimming, doing swimming stuff, going to a doctor’s appointment (much more difficult when you don’t have a car), and other miscellaneous activities. So, a busy Wellesley academic week, but it’s moving along, I’m being productive, and learning tons of things along the way :).
And now I’m off, to participate in a mandatory psychology study (the presence or absence of the word “mandatory” is very key to my existence :)), and finish up more homework and swimming and sleeping and fun :). Comments and questions are welcome as always, and I wish you a blustery Wednesday!
Monica
