Thanks to Copiah Academy and Copiah-Lincoln Community College, I came to Southern having already taken 20 hours. Because of this, I've been able to take pretty light semesters, avoid summer school and wrap up this whole "college education" thing in the average goal of 4 years.
Since I had the basics of Math, English and Biology out of the way, I dove straight into my Psychology classes. I'm in my Capstone class now and after that, "Non-Psychology Electives" is the only section of my degree plan that so boldy states "REQUIREMENT NOT MET."
I was so excited signing up for classes at the end of last semester because who wouldn't want a semester full of electives, right? And it would have been a great thing if I had have a brain, that is. Of all the courses offered, I debated all summer which classes I should take. I didn't want some loser "basket weaving" class, I really wanted classes I had minimal skill level in but never had an opportunity to focus in on them. After much consideration, this is what I (so brilliantly) came up with.
Violin Performance
Poetry Writing
Advanced Public Speaking
The Life of Jesus
Let me start my saying that just because you took violin as a child, played in a couple of weddings and love Meryl Streep's "Strings of the Heart" does not mean you need to take a violin class with thirty violin majors from foreign countries. Just because your Speech teacher Freshman year was the most amazing teacher alive, just because he told you your speech was the best he'd heard in two years, and just because you were elected to every position you ran for in high school solely because of your speeches does not in fact guarentee that you will whip through "Hell 101" as the teacher calls it, with no problems. And perhaps the most humorous of all these mistakes, just because you know and love Jesus does not by any stretch of the imagination mean that you should sign up for a "Life of Jesus" class at the University of Liberal. You know each semester you have that one class that you especially dread going to each time it meets? That's how I feel about every single one. But through all of these struggles I face every day from 8-5:05, I am learning new things as well as reinforcing what I knew before. Example: Jesus is not an Avatar. But I believe the most disturbing of them all has been my Poetry class. I mean yes I love the violin, and have a passion for writing/giving speeches but basically I've always thought I was a fantastic poet. I'm finding there's a lot of cold hard truths my mother should have told me a long time ago. But when you write
"I had a horse his name was Jack
I rode his tail to save his back
Woah Jack, don't come back!"
as a six-year old, what are you supposed to think? The first day of class rolls around, and I realize I'm going to have to dig a little deeper than broke back Jack to do well in the class. Our first assignment was to metaphorically draw two objects together who have nothing in common. I decided to sign up in one of the last groups so I could hear what others in the class came up with. I left discouraged every day as the teacher was never truly happy with any poem. One day he said "I don't want you to write about how much you love your baby or your honeypie. It's about chickens on fire people. GET WEIRD."
"Get weird" is all I needed to hear as I've never really had a problem with that. After much thought at the Labor Day lunch table with Mom, Clark, Aunt Judy, Caroline, and Ted Dear, we decided I should just write something down, turn it in, and drop the class as soon as I was able to get into another one. Incase I couldn't, I still had to write a poem as it was due the next day. I shot off ideas at Clark and Caroline as he was playing playstation, she was texting, and I was lying on the couch. An hour or two later, a beautiful comparison of Potatoes and Lady Gaga became the final work. Partly thinking I was going to be thrown out for "not taking the assignment seriously" I stumbled to class the next day. I finished reading and my teacher says "When you start comparing things to Lady Gaga, that's when I know you're really getting it."
I couldn't believe it, completely blew my mind. Of course he also had a deal of constructive criticism to offer but was impressed overall. As was I with his reaction.
Needless to say, I'm staying in the class. All of them actually. In violin I'm sqeaking like a mouse, don't agree with one statement in Relgion, and dread my first speech but I'm being stretched, I'm growing (no, unfortunately not in inches) and that's what really matters.
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