To be entirely honest, going into this school year, I didn’t fully grasp what it meant to be using the quarter system. I know many think of it as inferior to the semester system, but I’ve always been a big fan of the fact that we start later and have fewer classes to focus on in a fast-paced learning environment. But, near the end of Week 2, I started to feel some of the downsides of the quarter system, as I had to undergo an unexpected surgery. I’ve been recovering well and I definitely feel better because of it, but both the surgery and falling behind on classes were definitely a new experience for me. Fortunately, since it’s still so early in the quarter, I certainly could have missed more – the worst of it was that I missed one discussion and had to do the CS problem sets I procrastinated on in the waiting room – but I learned that though it’s bad to fall behind in general, it’s really bad to fall behind on the quarter system.
With that aside, I have had more fun experiences since the beginning of the quarter. To avoid letting this get too long, I’ll focus on one: I went rock climbing at the Anteater Recreation Center with a friend and was forced to confront my very real lack of strength. I didn’t make it to the top of any of the walls because I discovered that after a certain point, my body decided to give up in the fight against gravity and I could no longer pull myself up any higher. Despite that, I had a lot of fun trying out the different levels and fulfilling all of the different roles (the climber, the person spotting the climber, the backup for the person spotting the climber, the person who takes pictures once the climber reaches the top).
All in all, it’s been a good start! I’ve been learning things I’m interested in, and there’s enough difference between my classes where it doesn’t feel like all of the work is the same. I’ve been having fulfilling experiences outside of class, too. Here’s to hoping the rest of the quarter doesn’t feel like I’m getting tossed around in a washing machine, but I think after surprise surgery in week 2, the only way to go is up.