First-Week-Back Impressions

I have survived my first week of classes successfully--this first week, of course, having officially ended today. I feel that I will enjoy many of my classes. So, for the sake of my own personal satisfaction, I'll break them down below.

PHL 101 or Introduction to Philosophy: I feel that this class will benefit me because it will make me think. I will begrudgingly admit that the instructor is attractive, charismatic, and humorous, all qualities which somewhat irk me about him--not because I dislike him, but because I dislike his arrogance. (A large part of me feels that arrogant people should be boring and unlikable, which would make their arrogance more unfortunate. Sadly, this is not the case with my instructor.) I'm not sure how I feel about this class yet. What I can say is that many of the younger and less intellectually developed students are incredibly taken with the instructor, which makes me feel a little bit like the awkward, hateful hag in the corner for not finding him nearly as amusing as they do. Plus, I don't like the effect that all this has on me. I tend to sit back in this class with a wry smile and count myself as better than my fellow students, which is not an attractive behavior, even to me. In my defense, one should never trust a man who says things like, "We're just too tolerant here in America today!" (Yes, that's right, he actually said that.)

ART 105 or History of Western Art: I already love this class! The subject matter is interesting, I have learned a great deal about art already, and I am able to parlay some of my basic artistic knowledge into a cogent class discussion on the merits of a piece. I'm looking forward to applying what I learn here to other things. The only thing I regret about taking this class is taking it at 8 AM on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The room is dark for better slide viewing, the instructor's voice is soft and soothing, and no amount of coffee in the morning has the ability to make me wakeful. It's a good thing I'm interested, otherwise I'd be out like a light!

PSY 101 or General Psychology: I've only had this class once thus far, but I'm looking forward to it. My instructor seems like an intelligent, no nonsense, involved woman. She's willing to work with her students, but she expects us to do our fair share. I can respect that. We did a pretty cool activity about how our time is spent throughout the course of the week. Turns out, as suspected, I don't get nearly enough sleep (I know you're shocked! "College student lacks sleep," what breaking news!) I think this class will be fun. This instructor reminds me of one of my favorite high school instructors, Mrs. Gray.

HUM 275 or World Religions: I'm pretty interested in this class. The instructor isn't heavy-handed with his information. He's pretty laid back and nonjudgmental. He presents things in a very interesting way and seems to be very knowledgeable about the topic. Our first unit will be on Hinduism, which should prove to be interesting. We're going to be covering Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. I feel like this will be a way to become more worldly.

SOC 220 or Multicultural Diversity: This is a class that I'm really excited about. At first, I was a little bit nervous. I was on a budget committee with the instructor and, based on that, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about her in the classroom. After the first day, I wasn't sure why I had any doubts. I think her class is going to be an eye-opening experience regarding the way other people think. I'm kind of excited about it. Plus, the best quote from my entire week came from her class when she said, in reference to the difference between gender and sex, "Because I might have a penis, you don't know!"

As for returning to work this week, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. I still feel as thought I have somehow become low man on the totem pole--in fact I'm pretty sure that was the wording I used in the last post, even! I'm just moody. I feel like there's an implication that I'm stupid in every over-explanation of things that I've been doing for the past four semesters. There are questions that I've been answering longer than my bosses have been my bosses, and they are attempting to explain to me rudimentary functions of my job. Small changes to processes do not require a re-explanation of the whole process!

I'm not sure whether to chalk my recent pissiness up to being broke, PMS, lack of sleep, the start of the recent semester, or a general dissatisfaction with my current circumstance. Either way, it's not serving any one well, and yet I don't have any idea how to change it. To be fair, I haven't exactly been putting as much energy towards fixing the problem as I have towards perpetuating it, though. It's just easier to be angry. And, quite honestly, I kind of need some time to just be angry. I feel as though there's never any time for me to just be in a bad mood and have that time to get over it. It's terribly irritating.

At any rate, I'll get over it. I just feel like being angry for a while. This, of course, could go poorly in Philosophy class today. If I fly off the handle at the poor man, I don't think I'll be terribly surprised about it.