Zzzzz's

Sleep deprivation.

It's my best friend and my worst enemy, and I'm sure that the majority of college students can relate to that. Someone said to me the other day that it's funny how we are trained during our whole early childhood, elementary, middle and high school years as well, that we must wake up early; that this is how the real world is. Then we are shipped off to college to fend for ourselves and suddenly I find myself awake at 5:00am sitting around with friends doing nothing more than sprawling half passed out in beds singing along to and reminiscing about songs we all used to love in high school over drinks. For the four or five years that we live day in and day out, meandering our tired bodies to and from classes that we may or may not care about, barely awake with coffee in hand - that entire routine gets messed up! I swear that every time I go home for a break from college I end up spending nearly 90% of the time in bed catching up on lost hours of sleep from the semester before.
Now I'm not going to pretend like I don't enjoy staying up late. I have some of the most fun in the middle of the night or wee hours of the morning and it seems like the most deep, meaningful and philosophical conversations are only sparked when everyone's eyelids want nothing more than to fall heavily. I do think however that sleep is extremely important and I know that no matter how much I push myself to get things done and study for my classes, I will eventually crash and burn if I don't give my mind and body time to rest.
College students are consistently being stretched thin - to the maximum - and I think we all often refuse to acknowledge the times when we need to regain our sanity and take a moment or two for ourselves. Get into it.

Take a film class.

I decided to become a Cinema and Cultural Studies minor at my current university based on the sheer fact that I was planning on staying in school an extra year to complete my major. It seemed like a good opportunity to grab onto an extra little something to add to my resume and I based my choices on things that interested me and didn't require a great deal of credits to attain. Subjects like philosophy and film attracted me because as a biochemistry major I do not get the chance to exercise the more creative, abstract side of my brain as much as I'd like. I landed on CCS because I already had a couple of classes in that direction and after meeting with the advisor of the department, I was sold.

As unenthusiastic as I seem from the above paragraph, I am extremely happy that I made the decision that I did. I will admit, cinema classes are not on the same level of difficulty as I view my science courses, but they are difficult in their own sense and I become a little agitated when my peers act like the major/minor is a joke or waste of time. In fact, I receive more interesting and impressive emails about internship opportunities in the film industry than I do for my biochemistry. I'm getting off track. The point of this blog is to push people to step out of their comfort zones once in awhile and push yourself to learn something you wouldn't ordinarily find yourself examining. I didn't realize how much movies had to offer until I learned to write 2 page scene analysis of a 5 minute piece of an old french new wave film. I didn't realize the amazing strides producers and directors have taken since the birth of cinema. I didn't realize how much we take for granted in the movies we see each weekend today until I took film history and theory. If for no other reason than to fulfill a requirement, fill time in your schedule, or just as something to do one summer when you can't get your part time job at McDonalds back, I encourage you all to take a film course in your life. I promise that if you keep and open mind and push yourself to think creatively, you won't be disappointed.

The price we pay for brains.

When you're in high school skimming through the countless websites of the overwhelming number of colleges and universities on this planet, no one ever tells you how many thousands of dollars you will be in debt if you choose to continue down that path towards EDUCATION. Whether you choose to see it or not, we are brainwashed by everything around us at a young age that we must get a bachelor's degree if we want to "get a good job someday" and be able to live "comfortably".

Funny thing is, I spend more of my time teaching myself than some of my professors spend teaching me in classes that I am paying for. Why is this? It's amazing to me that I am in classes with at least 200 people on average, and as high as 700 in some cases. I know this is the price you pay for attending a large school but I still feel like there must be ways around this issue. I know the value of small classes...or even smallER classes because I attended one year of college at another, much smaller, university. I believe that the actual material students are presented with as undergraduates is pretty much the same across the board, however the education one recieves is different due to the modes of teaching that vary from school to school. There was one professor I had last semester who opened up the first day of class saying, "What I'm doing up here on this stage is not teaching. It is lecturing. I believe that teaching is a give and take process with student and teacher interactions and there will not be any of that here with about 600 students in the class. " He basically told us we didn't even need to show up. We could gain all the knowledge he would be presenting to us from our textbooks. So I didn't go. I got an A- in the class.

I wrote him an email during the semester saying that I agree with his views on teaching and that I think it is unfortunate that it seems so many classes, especially science oriented (arguably the most difficult to self-teach), that are offered at this school operate by someone standing on a stage in an auditorium flipping through powerpoint slides. I appreciated his honesty.

As I will be graduating this May, I have spent a fair amount of time reflecting on the past 5 years (total) of my experiences in college, both socially and academically. I have thought on numerous occasions about whether or not I regret transferring universities after my Freshman year...there are certainly pros and cons. I guess the biggest thing now is what will be in my future.