Semester Wrap Up

Well it's been a while hasn't it? Finals week managed to chase me off the internet for a fleeting time. I was up at 6 every day to go to the library and complete work in my carrel. I had a bunch of meetings too, but at the end of the semester what it boils down to is just concentrating and getting sh*t done. I'm not even that upset by it, because finals are the culmination of all that we have achieved over the past semester, and I am proud of all that I have accomplished. This was a great semester for me.

My Creative Nonfiction course taught me much about my writing and my personhood. My Classical Mythology course was fascinating because the class taught me how to look at the world within the context of myth and storytelling and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. For all that I might have complained about how difficult Semantics was, I appreciated the challenge, and I gained a set of skills that I do not find trivial.

That said, my favorite part of the semester was working on my independent study. By virtue of it being a course I created for my goals, it was everything I had wanted. I learned about translation, I learned about Sor Juana, and I learned more about myself along the way. This semester was a growing experience for me, and I feel like a new and better person for of it.

Cheers,
Talia

note-taking

I'm curious about the way that other people take notes. Mine vary by class, but some classes I mix it up. For example, my Semantics Professor puts all of our handouts online, so in that class I print out the handouts into OneNote, where I then use my surface and surface pen to make notes directly on the handout and on the side part of the OneNote page with rule lines on it. This works fairly well, with exception of when the professor hands out something that has not been posted on the online forum we use. In my Creative Nonfiction class, I make notes in my writing journal, and for my independent study I keep it almost entirely on my OneNote, with the exception of sometimes writing in a translation journal when I feel like doing something on paper.

My class that gives me the biggest issues is my Classical Mythology class. I simply cannot every decide how I want to take notes. The Professor talks very fast, And everything he says is interesting, and his slides are wall of text and I sometimes have no clue how on earth to keep up. What seems to work best is for me to Just write down phrases he says, and then look at the slides after class, but the sheer amount of information to learn can be overwhelming. I have a great advantage in that I have lots of knowledge about Mythology (Greek and Celtic in particular) but I still struggle at times, so I cannot imagine how it would be for someone with no Mythological background. The Professor is great though, and I'm glad I'm in this class, challenging as it may since I enjoy the material immensely.

Cheers,
Talia

Imposter Syndrome

I think I did terribly on my last Semantics assignment. Granted, I feel that whenever I turn in any assignment it's terrible (Imposter Syndrome anyone?) but I'm actually pretty scared for the outcome. You see, the problem is that I understood the assignment and what all the questions were asking. Not to mention that I think I came up with satisfactory answers and stated them well. 

So obviously I'm going to fail the assignment. 

Yes, I know that what I said makes no sense, and no that does not change my mind.  

This is the thing about living with anxiety. No matter how well I am doing I constantly wait for something to screw up, because of course then it will and I will be sad and miserable and wail that I brought this upon myself. (I'm a drama queen, just go with it)* To be fair, the whole point of saying this is that I do bring these things on myself. If one expects to fail, they probably will. If I keep worrying about things, I'll never get anything done. Hence, I just submitted my homework and went along on my merry business. Voice in the back of my head is still saying I'm going to fail, but I'm not going to worry about it. As Newt Scamander helpfully points out "Worrying means suffering twice." 

Cheers, 

Talia 

PS check out this proof I made for the assignment, I'm kind of excited that I was able to finally understand my class work: