"Future high demand, Future high demand. I don’t walk on land, bitch, I don’t ever walk on land." - Future, "High Demand"
Sometimes things get off to a rocky start and, like the famous boulder-scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, continue to roll downhill from thereon out. Thus was winter term my junior year of college.
It started off with not ordering the correct book for my Spanish class. I needed a new copy of a Vistas textbook with an access code, which I did not realize until I went to class on the first day. I thought I found the proper access code online, but when it came in the mail (yes, they sent a code in the mail on a piece of paper), the second week of school, I found it was the basic code and the not the premium one needed for some cockamamie web access. This code was only about $48. A new book with the proper code would've been about $180.
Talk about the cheap way turning out to be more expensive.
I always tell colleagues you're allowed one complete and total emotional meltdown every term at North Central College, but after that, you gotta push forward. Usually my meltdown comes about week seven or eight, when midterms have passed but final projects, papers, and exams are quickly coming on the horizon. This term, however, I had used my self-imposed sole emotional meltdown the second Monday of the term. I still had eight weeks to go, nine including finals week.
I wound up dropping Spanish due to my inability to obtain the access code by the time the first homework assignment via the online service was due. As a way of self-punishment (and insurance that I graduate on time next June), I will be taking Spanish in the summer. I'll be sure to buy the book new with the code come May.
On the very first day of school, things went wrong, and they never truly recovered to render any kind of comfort level. My advanced creative nonfiction class was demanding, both reading and writing intensive, also notwithstanding the fact that it serves as my first 400 level course. My 19th/20th century literature course always had something going on, be it a lengthy paper due or several dozen pages of reading between classes. And finally, my advanced writing class proved to be hell on wheels with the amount of research required for even the smallest paper.
Throw in work, radio shifts (12-3am), movies on the weekends, movies and reviews during the week, outside projects, and you have the recipe for how to get on the fastest train to going insane.
I've been in high demand for several years now, debatably since my first year of college, when school became an even bigger priority than it ever had before. It's amazing what education does to the mind and the work ethic when it comes at the expense of a lofty safety-net or even a down-payment on a vehicle.
This term didn't have me writing as much as my spring term sophomore year, which saw me writing over thirty papers (two pages or more), but the writing I did had bigger stakes. A nine-page paper in my advanced writing class was a majority of my grade. A ten-page paper in literature was too. Creative nonfiction requested a 3,000 word story coupled with a companion short film at least seven minutes in length. The week before that video was due, while my story was coming along nicely, my short film was basically scraps that barely fit together.
I somehow managed to eek out a high A on both the story and the video. Maybe one day I'll release both.
The hellish parts of this term would have been insufferable had it not been for some amazing companionship. Without my buddy Kevin and his girlfriend Abby, I would've never had insightful, contemplative discussions about life and its many eccentricities after our weekly meetings for the radio. If it wasn't for Lizzie, the assistant station manager of the radio station, I wouldn't have someone to vent to, but it's always a two-way street between us for our gripes.
If it wasn't for my best friends Nick, Sam, and Mike, I wouldn't have people off which to bounce my nonsense or to ask for advice, especially when it comes to things like managing schoolwork and scheduling. We're all so deep in this together when it comes to college that we forget we've never been through it before.
Through it all, however, the thing that keeps me the sanest besides by family being such an indelible rock is the weekly trips to the theater. Films like Logan, Get Out, and The Belko Experiment this term work to remind me why I not only love what I do, but why I go to the movies every week. Each Friday, an assortment of new releases proves to be a grab-bag of wonders; a cornucopia of interesting ideas and names bound together by a unifying, quietly magic building dedicated to visual wonderment. It's the closest thing to romanticism I know, but that might be the 19th/20th century literature talking.
With all that, my grades improved a tad, up from the 3.3 GPA I received last term. I ended the toughest, most exhausting term of my academic career with a 3.4, still short of the 3.6 needed for Dean's List, but with improved grades from core classes. If nothing else, I've shown that I can function well and achieve success at higher levels of education (think 300 and 400 level classes).
Something about winter term, the weather, the vibes, and the context always seems to bring out the most bitterly cold in myself. I'm now 0-3 for enjoyable winter terms that haven't left me hurt, frantic about school, stressed, or just in a general funk. Chalk it up to the shorter days or the fact that I have a healthy five weeks off school to get nice and lethargic in an academic sense before I need to go back and start grinding away.
But fear not in the regard that I will keep moving, pressing on forward with some very good, exciting projects for all my loyal friends, fans, and readers. "Steve Pulaski Sees It" starts April 1st, my mixtape 3 Much drops in August, and I will continue with the video reviews of news films I've recently started doing again on YouTube.
Spring terms sees me, for the first time, not taking on any English classes. I have my introductory (required) human biology course with a lab, which makes me very nervous, a seminar on leadership theory regarding the Tudors reign, and a class on social theory. I'll also be looking to officialize my show on WONC 89.1FM "Sleepless with Steve" from 12-3am.
It's a full life and I promise not to cut corners again.
KEY SONGS OF THE TERM (FIVE SONGS THAT WERE A PART OF MY DAILY PLAYLIST THIS TERM IN COLLEGE):
READ MY OTHER COLLEGE BLOGS:
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