Friday, August 20, 2010

Cinema Studies, Shakespeare & Stress

With about two weeks (give or take a few days) left until my sophomore year in university starts, I can't help but feel the stress mount with every passing minute.  I feel like I'm going into this year a fresh new student all over again, experiencing all the fears I've already overcome once more.

The fears of the new and unknown come with the fact that I've completely switched my area of study for this year.  As you probably already know, I went through a bit of a rough year as a forensic science student; my grades were absolutely abysmal, no doubt a result of a combination of a lack of interest, calculus, and a certain chemistry professor.  In a way, I'm thankful (despite my now permanent deficit when considering my GPA), as it took failure to prove to my parents that, Hey, I'm an English student, you fools.  Although they still occasionally shake their heads and lecture me on the "dead ends" of an English degree, they've come to terms.  To some extent.

The fact that I've switched majors means that I'm going into second year not knowing the basic fundamentals about how humanities courses work; thankfully, my first semester is a bit of a "transition," as I consider it, since I have both my biology courses then with a few English, as if to culture me before I dive into a semester of strictly humanities come the winter.

There's also a massive stress put on my shoulders - that I NEED to excel this year.  If I falter, I'll get the "I told you so" from my parents (along with a good yelling).  I'm going into what I've said to be my greatest strength, and there's no room for any error.  If I can get over that stress, or if I can quickly start pulling off good marks, I'm sure that stress'll fade.  A bit.

We'll see how the year goes.  If all else fails I'll become a friendly hobo.

3 comments:

  1. You'll do fine. Just keep your head on and focus. We can always have SERIOUS study sessions in the library silent zone. (This way I can't talk to you and be a bad influence).

    If anything, I'll try to convince my parents to let you stay in our non-existent basement if all goes down the wrong path. =)

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  2. WHy hello there Matt (this is Divya btw). I completely feel your stress levels... first year was also an utter disappointment for me. But at least examining and accepting our faults is a good step in the non-hobo direction :)

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  3. If all else fails we can rule as the first democratic establishment over the hobo population.

    "I used to be an English student, until UofT had its way with me and spit me out!"

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