College life: Second Semester

About two weeks ago I was thinking about college and my most resent semester. Then I realized that I never wrote about my second semester on my blog. I wrote about my first semester, but I neglected to write a review of my second semester, so I'll write one now.

My second semester started off very well. I can remember stepping out of the van and feeling great to be back on Bob Jones soil.

The second semester started up much faster than the first. I felt sorry for all the new freshmen who were starting on the off-semester. Classes started up pretty quickly, but it wasn't nearly as daunting, having gone through it already before.

Let me tell you a little about my classes, most of them were continuations from the previous semester, but I had a few new ones.

English 102, Composition and Grammar:
This was a pretty heavy class, with the big research paper, and all of the other various writing that we had to do. Some of my most frantic memories were made while writing my research paper.

History of Civilization, 2nd semester:
Most people dread this class, but I actually kind of liked it. It's not that hard of a class if you put the time in. But most often that is the challenging part.

Fundamentals of Performance Studies:
Very fun class, Similar to Freshman Speech, but more focused on the performing aspects. You get to know and become friends with the people in your speech classes better than you do in most of your other classes.

Computer Applications, 2nd semester:
Ah, the only class that I didn't have to work extremely hard to got a good grade. Most people find this class either very easy, or extremely challenging, depending on if they "get it" or not. I "got it" so I was able to do well and even help some of the others who were having a hard time with it. I helped a total of 10 of my friends on different occasions, and I helped a couple people in the computer lab, just as I was passing, and I saw that they were having a problem with some of the homework. Believe it or not, I actually really enjoyed helping everyone with the projects in this class. It is such a good feeling when you are able to help someone understand a concept or process. I especially enjoyed helping those who tried to work it out on their own, but got stuck, and were always very grateful to receive help. :D

Preacher Boy's class:
I found this class to be a great source of information and practical knowledge that I know that I will continue to draw from for the rest of my life.

New Testament Messages:
Loved this class. Mr. Crockett is an exceptional teacher. He really did a lot to reach out to his students and teach them.

Rapid Reading:
That's right, a class designated solely to learning how to read faster and more efficiently. It is a zero credit course, just taken as an elective. It was a very beneficial class for me. I learned how to read much better than before.

Basic Aural Skills:
This is the only class that I dreaded. It is a class that teaches you to sight sing and sight read music. I took it as an elective because I wanted to learn how to sing parts better. Of the 30 people in the class, three of them were not either music majors or music minors. I was one of those three. I loved the class and learned a great deal from it, but I struggled to stay on top of it. Most of the material was beyond my abilities. But that's fine, I passed and I benefited greatly from the class.

Voice Class:
A small class of 5 young, ambitious students. A very good class, I wish that I could have spend more time practicing my voice though, because I would have benefited even more if I had. I'm going to be taking private voice lessons next year, and I am greatly looking forward to that.

So, those were my classes, all had their own unique joys and challenges. It sounds like a lot because it was. Balancing this class schedule with 18 hours of work a week didn't leave much time for hanging out with friends, or extra curricular activities. I was a little too consumed with my studies. About a third of the way into the semester I started skipping lunch and eating dinner alone, so that I could wolf down my food in 15 minutes or less, then leave to go back to studying. After a month or two I decided that I was being a little extreme, and that I could afford to spend either lunch or dinner eating with friends. And then I'd skip the other meal. It seemed like a good compromise. So that's what I did. Usually I ate lunch with friends and then skipped dinner, for more study time.

I'm afraid that in my desperation to find more time to study I also cut God's time down to a minimum. An act that I greatly regret now. I would just rush through my "God and I time" and get by with the bare minimum. It was getting better as the semester progressed, but even by the end I wasn't where I should be. Which is not something that I can be proud of. But, since summer started God has really been at work in my life, and He's been drawing me closer to Him. And it is very exciting.

Work:
I have a job at college. I work for the Department of Public Safety as a Dispatcher. That means, I am the person in the welcome center, answering the phone calls and monitoring the radios to make sure the people running around in the patrol vans are doing what they are supposed to be doing. I enjoy my job tremendously. I have many excellent co-workers and supervisors, who love God and show it.
By nature the job has to run around the clock, 24/7. So that means somebody has to work the night shifts, and two nights a week I was that somebody. Tuesday nights and Saturday nights I would work from 11 p.m. until 3 a.m. which would be fine, except on Wednesdays (the next day) I would have work again at 7:30 a.m., traffic. And I since I always get breakfast every morning (except for Sunday mornings) I would have to be at breakfast at 7 o'clock sharp if I wanted to eat and then get to my traffic position in time. Which meant that I would have to get up at 6:30 in the morning. (22 minutes to get ready, and 8 minutes for the hike over to the dinning common.) Now, if you do the math, I get off work at 3 a.m. Wednesday morning (Tuesday night) and then get up at 6:30 a.m., that only leaves three and a half hours of sleep. Yep. So, every Wednesday I would run off of 3.5 hours of sleep, but I didn't mind, it was actually kind of cool to know that my body would still function under such circumstances. :P

Friends:
One of the main things that I love about college is the people there. As a missionary kid, growing up I didn't have many friends, and none that were nearby that I could talk to. I found ways to entertain myself though, juggling, Rubik's cubing, etc., but I always had that desire to be around people my age. At college there are over five thousand people my age. It is amazing! I have been blessed with so many Godly friends that it seems every time I pray, I have to thank God for all the friends that He has given me. I have friends from work, from classes, from my room, from extension, from other friends, friends come from everywhere. And I am so very, very thankful for the friends that God has blessed me with.

Sports:
Well, I didn't play any sports for my society, but I did go to most of the games and get pictures. Then another guy in our society took some of those pictures and put them on the society website. So, in that way I participated, even though I didn't play.
At the beginning on the semester I went out to the track 3 times a week and ran 3-4 miles each time. Although, as the semester progressed and I started to get swamped, that too fell away. About 2/3 of the way through the semester I started running again, but it would be short, a quick 1 or 2 miles. Just long enough to clear my head from all the dates and facts that I was trying to pack in there. There were consistently more people on the track at the beginning of the semester than there were later on, which makes sense, but I thought that it was interesting to observe.

Girls:
Still no girlfriend, don't worry Mom. ;)
I went on a good number of dates with girls, but just as friends. Of course, Jeremiah and Sarah (among others) give me a hard time about all the dates I go on with different girls, but that's their job as older siblings (Sarah is practically a sibling). :P
Two of the musical recitals were spectacular. The first, was an orchestra (directed my Michael's, my roommate's, uncle.) performing Dvorak's 9th symphony. I love that piece, and to see and hear it performed live, was simply amazing. The other was a Japanese hand bell group. The hand bell ensemble was astonishing. I liked it so much because it was superbly performed, and I hadn't seen anything quite like it before.
My society's dating outing was pretty memorable as well. I almost didn't go on my own society's outing because there was a scheduling conflict with a Living Gallery rehearsal. The rehearsal and the outing were going to overlap, so I wouldn't be able to make it, but I ended up going anyway. I was going to be late for the outing so I wouldn't be able to leave on the bus with everyone else. And since I don't have a car I had no way to get there, but I got a ride from my campus Dad, Dr. Boyd, and made it to the outing about halfway through the round of mini golf. I joined my date who was hanging out with Jeremiah and Jessica, and played out the rest of the round and then continued on with everyone else. Anyway, that turned out quite well, and we both had a very good time.
When I counted it up I figured out that in my Freshman year (first and second semesters combined), I took out 12 different girls, on 21 different dating events. That number can be as high as 15 girls depending on how you define it. An observant reader will recognize that there are more events than girls, so that means I've taken out some of the same girls multiple times. I've taken some girls out twice, some three times, with four times being the highest.

Well, that's about everything. I started out the year strong, and I think that I was able to end strong too. It got very busy there in the middle, but God provided. I didn't do everything correctly, but thankfully God forgives and lets us go on. I'm looking forward to next year, because I really like my class schedule. I think that I'll have some really nice classes. Plus I might have a very interesting job opportunity, we'll see about that though. :D

This is Timmy, signing off.