Geneseo is freezing. That’s the one thing I always notice shortly after midterms: how cold it gets here. The temperature decline goes hand in hand with how the second half of my semester is going. You’d think since this is my second year here, I’d be in the swing of things by now, but I’m not. My classes haven’t precisely gotten harder, but extenuating circumstances have made it more challenging to keep up. I’ve fallen behind in almost every class, but not to the point where it’ll be impossible to catch up. If my current academic standing were a temperature, it would probably be a solid Geneseo 40° (with wind, if we’re getting technical). The wind makes it worse, and it’s a toss-up as to whether it’ll warm up the next day or get even colder. Luckily, I don’t have any unsympathetic professors this semester, so working with them and trying to create new deadlines hasn’t been too difficult.
This class, Theater-Therapy for Veterans, has been one of the better ones for me. The only assignment I’m very behind on is this blog! Once I turn this in, I think I’ll be in a pretty good spot. I enjoyed all the readings we did, although some sat really heavily with me. Neither my immediate family nor I have ever been in the military, so I couldn’t make any personal connections to the characters. I was, however, able to relate to the recurring theme of helpless struggle and enjoyed seeing it accurately portrayed by highlighting its effects on the person in crisis and everyone around them. The final is going well for me, too. Our final project is to write a play, so it gives us a break from something like a final essay or another long exam. My group worked well together and efficiently, so we could finish our script with ample time left for many run-throughs. We are performing it on Thursday, so I expect it to go well.
By the end of the semester, I hope to get in as much missing work as possible, even if it means staying up all night. A strategy I’m using for myself, which I highly recommend, is making a pyramid of post-it notes on my wall with all the assignments I need to do. The ones at the top are the most important and are weighted the most, and the ones at the bottom are worth less. This way, I have a visual of what I need to do and how much progress I’ve made; this helps keep me motivated. If I stick with this, I’ll be in good standing by the time I go home for break. In other words, I’ll no longer be academically “stuck in the cold” like I am.
Overall, this semester went smoothly, other than the last three weeks or so. This class was by far one of my favorites, and I would suggest it to anyone reading this blog. I’m eager to finish this semester strong and move on to the next. My advice, which I plan to follow going forward, would be to use strategies such as the post-it note pyramid before you scramble at the end of the semester to get work in. Keeping this in mind will help me refrain from relying on the adrenaline rush I get from working under pressure, making way for a much smoother and much “warmer” semester this spring.