"Six Feet Deep" or "How's School Coming Along?"

I think I mentioned that this semester gave me a much heavier workload than the previous two semesters... If not, this should give you an idea of how bad it is:

This coming Friday I have a test in Japanese. I also have to do all remaining homework for this chapter in Japanese, which amounts to 3 workbook pages including some translating of audio clips.
Over the weekend I have to read an entire chapter on Islam and write a paper on it for Monday.
Also this weekend, I have to watch at least two Akira Kurosawa films, come up with a thesis for and write a 5 page paper for my film class for Tuesday.
Oh, and I also have to study at least the last two chapters from my Japanese book, probably more, for an oral interview I have on Wednesday.

Stressed? Me? Nah...

Getting Psyched Up!

It's hard for me to describe how excited and terrified I am to be going back to school in a couple of weeks. It will be the first time I've taken college classes for two consecutive school years since the mid 90s! And it will be the first time that I'll start the year with a lot of pressure riding my shoulders.

Last school year, I did well enough to make the Dean's List, as well as be invited to two separate honors societies. While no one is telling me that I have to repeat that level of performance, I'm holding myself to it because A) I'm not going to half-ass do anything, and B) I'm the one paying the bills on this college trip in the end. While Oakland University isn't the University of Michigan or Michigan State University, it sure as hell isn't cheap. (To all my California friends that complain about $26 per credit hour, lets just say I wish I had been paying that 15 years ago here in Michigan! )

I'm excited to go hang out with my school friends, learn more Japanese, and maybe to impress the Cinema Studies program director enough for him to refer me to some of the movie studios opening up here. But there's a ton of work to be done, and I'm more than ready to get started on it!

BEST. GRADES. EVER.

Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty smart guy. I feel that way, and friends and family have said as much as well. Yeah, that sounds like I'm tooting my own horn, and of course good friends and family might lie to the dumbest member of the family. But I get the distinct impression that they really mean it. If I weren't at least slightly above average, I wouldn't have been in an honors program in both middle and high school, though I'll be the first to admit that I still haven't graduated from college after nearly 20 years... There are perfectly good reasons for that, and I'll talk about them another day.

That said, I've never been the best student I could be. I tried to never do homework, unless it was absolutely critical to passing the class, and until I got to college, I had only failed a single class in my life. And  *THAT* was due to not doing my homework instead of not getting it; I got B's or better on all the quizzes and tests in that class, and I went to night school to retake it and graduate with my class.

In college, things got bad because I had a bad case of really not caring. I'd stop going to some classes half way through the semester and never tried unless it was a class I was really interested in. That's all related to some family and personal problems I started going through after I graduated from high school, and literally lasted for years afterwards. Again, I don't really want to talk about it right now, because I'm in too good a mood.

Basically, I haven't even attempted to take 3 classes at once since I attended Michigan State University from September 1990 through March 1991. When I took classes, it was usually one or two a semester, and about half the time I'd drop one or the other before the end of the semester. Ultimately, it's a miracle that I had 44 transferable credits by the time I got to Oakland University.

So, this semester, at the age of 37, I apparently got serious about my education, and decided to take 3 classes for 12 credit hours so that I could start pushing towards my degree. I was hoping to just not fail the classes, and I've been worried about my performance and grades all semester long. But tonight, I'm happy to report that not only did I pass the classes I took, but passed them with an average of 3.83 points out of 4.0 points. My best grades ever!

My only disappointment is that it took me this long to get this serious about my education, but for now I'm not going to worry about that. I'm already registered for my next 12 credit hours, and starting to worry about those classes...! LOL!

Officially a Student [Again]

Although I've known for about a week, thanks to the marvels of the web, I received my official acceptance letter from Oakland University today! What that means is that I can now take classes there in an attempt to get a degree in Cinema Studies; coincidentally a program they just set up.

I'm looking forward to going and getting down to business, but I'll admit that I'm scared of thw whispers that I'm sure to hear behind my back. Why will there be whispers? Simple: I'm twice as old as most of my fellow students. Being 37 isn't a handicap, and I really don't care what the other students might say, but I don't want to go through any emotional shit because of my age.

If I fuck up, I'm fine with them talking about me behind my back, but I don't need any age shit.

Any way, I think I'm finally ready to commit myself to school and getting it completed, degree and all. We'll see what the job field looks like in a couple of years when I start calling myself a screenwriter with a bachelor's degree.

Paperwork Sucks

For the last few weeks I've been trying hard to get the paperwork together for a scholarship to go back to school this Fall. Now twice this week I've travelled by bus and foot to turn in this paperwork and failed to get it accepted and off my hands.

The first time was because I arrived too late in the day to see a career planner which is a mandatory step in the application process. Today's failure was because federal guidelines meant that the faxed copy of some of my paperwork was unacceptable.

I'm already jumping through hoops to try to make this happen, do they really need to be on fire too?