Once more into the breach...

After a long summer of adventure, leisure, and recovery, I once again rationalize committing 16 weeks of my youth to academic chores. What am I thinking?

I could be backpacking through the Alps or reading by the fire, learning to sail or painting a sunset. There are literally hundreds of things I would rather do with my autumn than hole up in Sacramento to study, and just thinking about the opportunity cost almost leaves me in tears.

However, I have done this before.  With enough discipline, concentration, and self pacifying mantras like “People with college degrees earn an average of 40% more than their peers with only a high school diploma,” I will temporarily forget the fun I'm missing out on and power through another spirit crushing semester.

The first week is always the weirdest. The campus is mobbed with overdressed strangers. Inevitably, my classes will be so full that the last three or four people to arrive will be left leaning awkwardly against the radiator until the instructor weeds out the wait list hopefuls and crushes their freshman optimism.

Some professors I've had before, some I've never heard of, some are so bizarre that I suspect they came up with a stage crazy personality just to keep the attention of their students.

I join every uncomfortably silent class of avoiding eyes for the same first-day lecture about the food and drink policy, plagiarism, and office hours, and to have the syllabus spoon-fed to me for over an hour.  I can't help thinking that if the syllabus had been emailed out the previous weekend we could have gone over it ourselves, then after some basic questions and clarifications on Monday we could have gotten directly down to business.

The first few readings and assignments are never very difficult, but switching mental gears from summer slouch to academic powerhouse always is. Trying to get through one chapter of Economics reading feels like I’m trying to gnaw my own arm off. All I can think about is the river and the sun, all the decent weather I’m wasting and how soon I can go for a bike ride. Furthermore, I didn’t even finish my summer reading. Now I have to put it away in favor of supply/demand graphs and negative externalities until Christmas? I’m going to forget the entire plot and all the character development and have to start the book all over again. I think I’ve read the first ten chapters of Savage Detectives three times.

On the bright side, and speaking of books, class texts weren’t too pricey this year. I think it was under $100 out the door for all but one of my textbooks, and many professors are putting their readings online. About damn time.  It’s always encouraging to see the faculty making our lives as students easier. It makes me think that through the fog of old age they might retain a hazy image of what it was like.

More good news, the new gym/wellness center is open for business and looks like somewhere I could waste a lot of valuable studying time.

“People with college degrees earn on average 40% more… People with college degrees earn on average 40% more...”