The home stretch

Since the last time I wrote, there has been lots of studying, lots of writing, lots of reading and lots of stress. The end is in sight (well, the end as of now is in sight) and I can't wait. It isn't that I didn't enjoy this semester. I am trying to be a positive person and realize that positive and negative aspects of the semester still lead me to learn about myself and the world that surrounds me. However, I need a moment to rant about exam week.

I know all about formalized testing. I have been in school for 20 years. Different levels have different standards, but I still get the cold sweat panic from exams. How can one test possibly allow me to show everything that I know about a certain subject? What if I blank about something important (it happens once and then there is always the fear about it)? I don't cram within my study habits; I learn as the semester progresses and spend my study time reviewing important facts and figures and synthesizing everything into big picture answers (or at least as close to answers as I can figure... I constantly question and "answers" seem to be more absolute that I am comfortable with). In some environments, I feel that this study tactic is great. I actually learn things, I don't just memorize for the test. However, there is still the stress and when everything is coming due at the same time, I feel a little like my head may explode.

Tomorrow I will be finished. Of course my hardest and more intensive exam is tomorrow. I just want everything to be ok. I want to do well, I want to succeed. I want to get the hell out of Dodge*. Another week and the next stage begins.

I had a whole list of other things to blog about because I am just that cool, but I decided to spare my few readers of an opinion post about why I think that maybe there is no ivory tower of folklore. Or why I think that people suck generally. Or why the Malinowskian functionalist approach took hold in the US... BRAINS!

-B



* I had a conversation the other day in regards to my previous use of this phrase (see two entries ago) and I didn't actually know its origin. So I looked it up. Because I am awesome.

Get the Hell our of Dodge: To leave somewhere immediately, to evacuate or scram.

"Get the hell out of Dodge" is a reference to Dodge City, Kansas, which was a favorite location for westerns in the early to mid 20th century. Most memorably, the phrase was made famous by the TV show "Gunsmoke," in which villains were often commanded to "get the hell out of Dodge." The phrase took on its current meaning in the 1960s and 70s when teenagers began to use it in its current form.