Semester is off to a rough start

By Laura Thomas

Week 3 of the semester and I'm already overwhelmed. For some reason it's taking a while to get adjusted to the schedule this spring. The classes are at awkward times breaking the days up into weird chunks of time. Another big change this semester is that a few of us are taking a 6-7 Zumba class at the rec. It's a great outlet from all the stress and anxiety brought on by grad school and one of the few things I look forward to. By the time I get home from that, shower, and cook supper and do daily chores, it's 9 before I get started on my homework.

Oh the homework. I really thought that this semester would be a little bit lighter on homework so we would be able to concentrate on our thesis. Wrong. Reading, reading, and more reading. If you recall from previous blogs, I don't like reading, nor am I very fast at it. An average week for homework includes reading around 210 pages. This isn't fun reading either, it not a Twilight novel but a very detailed specific text that you must know and discuss. This reading is consuming most of my time because again, I'm not a fast reader.

On top of this I'm supposed to be reading and researching for my thesis. After reading 200+ pages I don't want to pick up 1 of 20, 300 page books that I still have to read and document for research. My thesis should be of the upmost importance right now but it's not. Everything is flipped. Instead of spending 2-3 days on my other classes leaving me 4-5 days to work on my thesis, I'm spending 4-5 days on my other classes and 2-3 days on my thesis. This has got to change or I'm not going to make it.

I take solace in knowing that I'm not alone in this struggle. Everyone is struggling and trying to figure out how out to juggle everything. To try and to fix the situation I developed a schedule this week for when I am going to work on a class. If I don't have everything read by the end of that time, it simply won't get read.
On a brighter note, I do really like all my classes so far this semester. The professors are great and I think I will get a lot out of them. My favorite class this semester is Designing Outdoor Spaces. It's online which is unusual to me and that itself is an adjustment but it's nice to be able to do it when I want to. Speaking of that class I need to get back on my schedule, read the weekly 70-80 pages for it and take a quiz.