So. Right now I'm in the process of choosing classes for the semester. And, you see, I'm having some trouble. The well-behaved part of my schedule are the classes Physics and Galois Theory, which alternate Monday through Thursday in the same time-slot, leafing together nice and neatly. Those together are two credits, and I want a kinda chill semester so I need two more. That's where the trouble is.
I need to take a Spanish class this semester; otherwise I won't move on to be a Junior next year (which probably doesn't have lasting repercussions, but everyone acts like it does). There's two sections that I'm willing to take, one at 9:25 and one at 10:30. At first I thought I liked the 9:25 professor better, but now I'm not sure. I'm going to gather more data.
Then there's the last slot, in which I want to do some math thing, which is either XXXtR3MaL CoMb1nAtOrIX (Extremal Combinatorics) with Pat who is great, or Real Analysis with someone else who is not as great. Combinatorics conflicts with the 9:25 Spanish section though, which was a problem.
So, I've gotta let something go. Ultimately what I've decided to do is to not take Combinatorics. This is the real reason I wanted to make this post; it's a kind of goodbye to the idea of taking Combinatorics. See, I really like Pat as a professor, and he's really passionate about combinatorics in particular, so the class is bound to be a riot. Also, Pat might be leaving after this semester, which means this could be my last chance to take a class with him.
All that said, though, I've made up my mind. I don't think I could stand a second tough problem-set based math course (the first being Galois), and as fun as it would be to take a graduate course as a sophomore, Real Analysis just seems eminently more doable.
So that takes care of the initial reason I wanted to write, but there's also more things I'd like to talk about. Mostly other things I'm having to do without. Like food, for example. (I had no time for dinner today. It was sad.) But there's also silly little goals that I'd had. One example is the "take a grad course as a sophomore" thing. No grad courses on my schedule, unfortunately.
Another was the idea of completing all of my distributional requirements as a sophomore, which I could have done had I taken level 4 Spanish (I'm currently in level 3, but I could go higher if I wanted to work more, which I don't) and a Writing credit. Didn't end up happening. Although I'm honestly okay with that. It would've been rad, but not that rad.
I coulda sworn I'd had more things than that. That's only like three things. Four if you count food. But yeah, I'm letting them all go. Letting go of the graduate class, the finished requirements, the Pat. Don't need them in my life. Whoosh, they vanish.
Okay, to end on a lighter note, I've got a little story. Earlier today at the copy shop where I was getting my Spanish book, for the first time ever, someone mistook me for a woman and didn't then correct to male. I was in a corner of the shop, looking at my phone to figure out what exactly I needed, when she called out to me from behind the counter, "Ma'am, do you need anything?"
When I turned to look at her, rather than responding the way I'm used to ("Oh, sorry, sir, do you need any help?"), she stopped and said, "Oh, uh, I mean–." I didn't react, and not a half-second later she'd composed herself. Then, for the rest of the conversation (in which I did in fact purchase the book), she avoided referring to me by any gender. This small interaction filled me with so much joy that I even forgot for a few minutes the fact that I'd just paid $260 on a single class, which is borderline robbery.
Wait that's not a high note. Uh. Focus on the joy bit. Bye.
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