Rarely do I admit this, but most of my undergraduate courses don’t inspire energy. On the contrary, they rob me of energy. For 4 semesters (and one more to go), I have gone through requirement courses: general education or transfer suggestions.

In general, a community college student doesn’t have freewill when it comes to courses. Though I spend much of my time worrying about the future, two years ago, I didn’t anticipate landing at NOVA. I’m both blessed and distressed.

Distressed because I shouldn’t have been so picky when I took courses at Simon’s Rock. Blessed because I was selective enough; a lot of my credits transferred.

Yet, I took 3 courses my freshman year out of whim:

• Psychology–whose little biology was too much for me and signaled one of my greatest weakness as an academic writer: flowery language. With two semesters of biology (the last this semester), I’m correcting this criminal offense with ease. But not enough. My English professor this semester threw in another offense: my use of metaphors. For the record: Disguising a poet sucks, thanks academia.
• Art of autobiography–the one place where my papers sounding like Claudia was not a problem. A class with overwhelming space for discussion and growth. Probably the class that’s taught me most about being a woman of a color…. not surprising, an all-girls class. Oh, and among the few classes that didn’t transfer over.
•  Dalcroze Eurhythmics Thesis Performance–this was not transferred over, accordingly to the 1 credit rule: they won’t transfer. I didn’t dive into knowledge with this “course.” It was a senior’s project. I did spend quality and weird time with a mixture of rhythmic and nonrhythmic people (me usually being the latter).

And eurthymics has (what seems) permanently embedded this song into my head:

While general eduction courses have brought me headaches and once, contributed to a shingles onset (yes, I’m talking to you math-class-that-never-transferred), I have learned a great deal. Here’s but a brief, incomplete summary:

• Freshmen seminar taught me to tolerate over-imposing opinions and to accept that logic is as good as any method of persuasion (except for Claudia, she’s allowed all the emotion in the world).
• My history courses have reinforced my belief that history is repetitive and we’re not going to move forward without knowing where everyone’s been. The Chicano during the 60’s. The Native American during colonization. The African during enslavement. The European during religious prosecution. The Chinese during the 1880s… All our brothers and sisters during genocides. Wars. Economic collapses. (And you get the gist, reader.)
• My precalculus course, this semester, well, that’s a secret love affair. (I discovered math and I are alike in this: crazy logic.)

And all the curricula combined have filled me with appreciation for the privilege of education. Even with my limbo status, I’ve made it far. And Lord knows, it’s a tough, merciless world out there.

Courtesy of my English professor’s teaching: