One life-changing day in Juicy's sophomore year of highschool, she realized that she could arrive a little late to class and hand in a better quality paper than had she arrived on time. She figured this was at no cost to her except for a lateness report that would probably never come back to haunt her on her report card. This worked well, until Juicy's professor was grading her, remembered the day she showed up to class 15 minutes late, and knocked what should have been a perfect 100 to a 99. "The Man" (via my advisor) spent the rest of highschool trying to knock this attiude out of me. They tried to teach me that teachers actually took it offensivley when I was late to class (even for just five minutes, really that is such bull...) and that I could not live my life leaving things off to the last minute.
They clearly failed.
If bragging about my genius discovery sophomore year cost me my perfect score, then I have a few words for Neptune in hopes of giving me a much needed kick in the ass:
It seems everytime I think I've really dug myself into an academic hole in college, things turn out just fine. As time progresses, the scare tactics wear off, and I don't see any bad results. Now, for example, I haven't gone to monday classes for at least a month, but I have never gotten better grades. That paper I thought was BS that I wrote at 5am? A-. The Astro HW I didn't do the reading for? even better. Math? same. Honestly, the last time I did this well academically was middle school. Eventually, limits get pushed and it becomes easier and easier to get by on doing even less. Whereas in highschool the system probably would have found some way to guilt me into working for them, college has no such process. I nolonger "feel bad" about any of this, so long as it doesn't hurt my grade. (Though it was a little embarassing when my gov professor emailed me to ask me where I'd been all week, and I didn't really have a quality answer.And she might factor in attendance after all. Note to self- go to class) I know that this is supposed to be where finals come in, and that anyone else in college would tell me that I am clearly disillusioning myself, and soon will be confronted with a test worth half my grade that I did little-to-no reading for and have learned my lesson to late. But here's the catch: The final in the class I have done minimal reading for and skipped several times is take home. This means I have a day or two to do the test while using my books, notes, and possibly the internet, just solong as I don't ask anyone else about it. Same for the math midterm I have coming up. Seriously, how am I supposed to know when to buckle down and learn stuff when, for at least half of my major exams, I don't really have to?!?
And then there was today. Today I watched Sex and the City for three hours. THREE HOURS in the middle of the week. Since when is this possible? Where's my frantic rush to get stuff done? Where's the energy-drink-inspired sense of an impending heart attack at any moment? This cannot be right. I know that it has been postulated that everything in the universe tends towards entropy (and by that I mean the opposite of energy) but I am starting to scare myself. I could have read for pleasure, I could have filled out a variety of forms I need to get done at some point, I could have cashed a check or done laundry, I could have done multiple things I enjoy doing that are productive and even non-academic. But no- I just sat there for THREE HOURS. Shame. What will I ever amount to in life if, when I do have free time, I don't do anything with it?
Oh- and as I promised, I must shout out my roomie who has apparently decided to stalk me and read every post since August. My first impression when I heard that was to ask "where do you find that kind of time?" but then I remembered, we're in college.
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7 comments:
Wan to know when the shit'll hit the fan? Now. Everyday. Because you aren't as educated. Grades are silly, just because your grade isn't dropping doesn't mean your understanding isn't either. Sure, you can get through college without relly learning much, but why bother going at all then?
And if I were a teacher, I would be ticked if you showed up 5 minutes late. Everyone else has the same shit due and they make it.
...and I'm so proud. I feel like I inspired your random title.
I mean on days when something Isn't due aswell, like, as a teacher I have 40+ students and they're paying (or legally mandated) to go to school. I'm not going to take it personally and cry at night if a few (or even a large chunk) cut my class. really, it's their choice and not everyone is going to love what I'm teaching. Plus they could just be like me and like the class but love something else more (eg sleep) Why would anyone ever take that personally???
and how did you inspire my completely unrandom title? If you thought that was random, you do need more humanitites....(PS await a post on that topic soon to come)
ok...I didn't mean totaly random title, just a not-obvious one.
And I might not take humanities courses, but at least I go to my classes.
As for respect, try to keep in mind that not everyone is a libertarian as you, and wont respect your "right" to not care as much as you expect.
it's not a "right" to not care (though with voter apathy at an all time high you'd think it was written into the constituition...) it's an assumption that I work on until it has been disproved. It's not my right to not care, it's the assumption that the teacher will not care/take it personally due to their a.) own personal experiences b.) the fact that it's my issue, not theirs, and c.) and having better things to concern themselves with.
and on the note of my caring, since this is an open curriculum, shouldn't the teacher assume (regardless of my class participation) that I do care at least enough to take the class?
that said, i do beleive it is in my best interest to not skip again for at least a few weeks (but then again, I told myself that last week)
How do you plan on having this theory disproved? Do you think your proffesors are going to confront you about it and tell you how disrespected they feel? Why don't you think about manners for a while and figure it out yourself.
And, in an open curriculum, if you do automatically care about all your classes, why don't you go?
Yes. If a proffessor shows they really care (which some have done) i'm gonna show up. if they don't feel so offended as to do somethiing about me missing a few classes, than is it really that offensive? that's being passive aggressive
I do care about my classes actually quite a bit, but if I can learn just as much and sleep in, I will. Today I feel really good about going to class, but I frequently forget this at 8 30 am.
as for the manners argument....never really thought that applied beyond the sphere of punctuality...(and by that i mean more than 15 min late)
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