The Overworked Undergrad!

I have a sort of blog post series devoted to my weight loss. Now here's another one, which is about me pushing through my last year of college. I call it "The Overworked Undergrad," and future posts devoted to it will have [TOU] in the title.

Like most college students, I've occasionally had the feeling I was trying to do 30 hours' work in under 24. I don't think I've yet succeeded at that, but maybe it's a learned skill. In any case, I will have my share of things going on this semester.

Financially things might be a little tight. Last semester my GPA wasn't fantastic and I lost a government-granted scholarship, and it kind of hurt. Don't worry - I am pretty sure most of my tuition will be covered for fall 2013 but not much will be left over. Frugality is going to be a watchword for me. Any chance for a free meal or supplies will be a must-have for me. Instead of paying the entire tuition costs at once I signed up for an incremental pay plan the college offers. What kind of sucks is it had a $40 fee. Oh sure, students are having a hard time paying everything. Let's charge them extra! That's the one gibe I have against that. The incremental plan allows me to have enough time to make up whatever residual difference there might be.

One surefire way to see that I can have my costs paid, and perhaps a little extra take-home (take-dorm?) currency, is getting a job. Right now I am considering two different venue. There are programming jobs open. The past two semesters I tried to apply for it but later found I didn't have the time possible to work at it. Now it might be necessary. Of course I have also gained more useful experience. The most recent notches in my belt are learning how to use Wordpress and Git. I'm also diving more into coding with PHP. It's likely if I applied for a programming position I would be accepted. This kind of experience would be wonderful for me, as I'd get the opportunity to work in a team on actual projects.

If I don't take up programming, there is a quaint little donut shop nearby called Varsity Donuts. Myself and other members of a campus ministry called Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) frequented that place after Thursday night meetings, and the vintage feel makes it seem like a wonderful place to work.

Speaking of time, you should see my schedule.

There's something to be said of a schedule that looks symmetrical and repetitive. It has a sort of flow, a rhythm you might say, that makes it easy to adjust to it. This schedule does not have much of that. It's terribly imbalanced - look how heavily loaded Monday and Tuesday are! Tuesdays are going to be harsh, as lunch probably won't be easy to get. Things get significantly easier after the first two days, and I am very happy about that.

You will notice that none of my classes begin before 10:30 AM. That is intentional. I've made a deal with myself to never sign up for a class beginning any earlier than 9:30 AM. My first semester had a lab which started at 7:30 AM, and it was horrid. I am a morning person, but not that much.

I don't expect I'll be sleeping in terribly often. Generally speaking the latest I ever sleep to is 9 AM. My body just doesn't let me slumber past that. When you're taking four fairly technical classes in one semester you need all the time you can get to work on stuff. So I will likely be doing little bits of schoolwork in those pre-class mornings. Time management is something I pride myself on.

Once I am a little more ready I will probably design for myself a seven-day schedule which includes not only classes but meal times, hobbies, church-related activities, schoolwork, and so on. I've done this for nearly three years, in college and out, and it's helped me to advance a lot as a person.

Finally there is the matter of roommates. Due to an error on the college's part the selection of my roommate was delayed, but now I have been informed of who it is. I won't give out his personal details, obviously, but he is an international student. This mainly means I would do well to brush up on the language and culture of my future roommate's home nation - and I can expect to learn a bit about it through experience as well. It will be interesting!