Highmoon's Ponderings

Well, the Summer A “semester” (I have a hard time calling a 6-week term a semester) at FIU is now done and in the books. How did I fare? Pretty good actually.

• Intercultural Communications: A
• Human Growth & Development: B

I’m happy with my A; this was my first online course and I was a bit worried at first. I mean, I’m more than familiar with online tools, but it’s different when it’s for fun and for a grade. It wasn’t, actually. Moodle was an easy program to use, and in general functioned like an all-in-one package of a lot of tools I am used to from my wanderings around the net (polls, forums, tests, email, file archives – all together). It did demand that I put a lot more on my end, as with no set class times, I could do the readings whenever I wanted. Test and quizzes did have deadlines, so that acted as my time-keeping device. I think the professor did a good job of actually making the tests challenging, knowing full well that we had our books to reference during examination. All in all, I think I would take more online courses in the future (though someone will have to explain to me why online courses cost $200 more than a regular in-class course).

I’m ok with the B in Human Growth & Dev. I was shooting for an A, of course, but let’s face it, memorizing a 15-chapter textbook in 6 weeks is bound to take its toll. There was just a lot of material, which was only being covered only superficially in class. At times I felt as if I might as well have taken this as an online course as well; the only difference in the workload of these two classes was that I had to show up on campus twice a week. It was a good class, but like all introductory-level courses, we had around 60 people, so there was very little opportunity for good discussion. We also completely skipped the age group to which I belong, the 25-39 Emergent Adult group, so that left me deflated (I was really looking forward to exploring what the heck is going on with my age cohort). Given that the professor actively sought to make each test harder than the one prior (she said the class average was too high – ?!), I’m good with the B I got.

I have to say, it feels good ticking off these classes from my pre-requisites list. It puts me so much closer to my actual Nursing classes. I’m actually looking forward to Fall classes!

So now I’m on vacation until the Fall semester starts in late August, which is fantastic as I need it. My brain was starting to fizzle there towards the last weeks of class.

In a couple of weeks I’m off to North Carolina, then in early August it’s Gen Con.

My first semester back in university after 8 years out is now done, sealed and in my academic record. How did I do? I’ll let the grades speak for themselves:

• Foundations of Human Physiology – A
• Foundations of Human Physiology Lab – B+
• Introduction to Ethics – A
• Introduction to Psychology – A

Yeah, allow me a moment to feel a bit smug.

Overall, it was a fine semester, though after Spring Break I really felt the squeeze at times, especially because I then had to take time off for Passover and that set me behind on my classes. On all of them I was able to make it up, on all except Statistics, which you don’t see listed above. I was not able to drop it on time thanks to the Prof not giving us our grades before the drop deadline, and after Spring Break/Passover, I came back to find I had no idea what the material was right on a test date. Long story short, I deliberately took an F on that class, so I can repeat it in the Fall and replace that grade. I hate that it came to that, but there was no other way around it.

I’m glad to be back in school. I’m pleased with myself that I’ve been able to get back into the swing of things so well. I did very well in my classes, and after an 8-year break and a change in faculties, that’s something to be proud of.

I’ll throw in a mention about my commuting experience since February, as I also never updated beyond the first month. I spent all of Feb using the public bus as I was without a valid driver’s license during that time. In general I had no problem with it, except for the extra time it took to get to and from school. Yes, I’d use the time as best as possible, but sometimes it was just a chore, especially before the time change, when getting out at 6 PM from Statistics meant everything was pitch dark. I saved some money, yes, but then I used it up in paying the traffic ticket and the license renewal fees. By March I was using my car again and I kept doing so for the rest of the semester, minimizing the use of gas as much as possible, but still driving. I did eventually get a new bicycle, but I have not tried to do the bike-bus combo anymore.

Today I start my summer semester, 7 weeks of intense study in two classes, Human Growth & Development and Intercultural Communication (which I’m taking online). After that, summer break. And man, I cannot wait for it. I’ll talk more about my summer classes once I’ve gotten into the thick of things a bit.

I’ve met a fair number of rabbis during my time as a Jew. Most of them are regular people who have dedicated their lives to studying G-d’s Torah and helping people out perform mitzvot. They lead normal lives and have the same kinds of issues most people do, except they face them with this admirable confidence in Hashem. What’s more, I’ve yet to meet one that doesn’t also impart that joy they have to others. I also know there are some rabbis that transcend even the rabbis I have known, that make them seem in comparison as normal as I seem next to a rabbi. These are rabbis that have achieved levels of connectivity to G-d that are truly astounding. We call them tzadikim, which can be translated as righteous. Today I met such a rabbi.

I can’t tell you anything about the Kalever Rebbe; before Monday I had never heard of him, or seen his picture. Understand, there are a lot of Chassidic groups each with their own Rebbe, even if the one most people know of is Chabad-Lubavitch. But I saw that the Kalever Rebbe would be visiting FIU for one day, at a time when I could drop by for a visit. I’ve been going through some spiritual stuff lately and I figured meeting with a tzadik would be good (my wife concurred).

Long story short, he was delayed from the 12 PM time he was originally scheduled to have been on campus, but after my class I walked over and was able to see him.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, maybe something earth-shaking, a spiritual sledgehammer to the chest, based on accounts of meetings with other tzadikim I have heard/read. It was nothing like that. It was actually about as mundane and simple a meeting as you can imagine: him in a chair at the head of a conference table, me standing to his right, us sharing some words. He shook my hand and didn’t let go until we were done, and he’d pat it for emphasis pretty much every other word. He gave me a few blessings, and gave me a very simple, almost elementary, answer when I told him what I’ve been going through. A smile never left his face.

It took only a few minutes. I walked out and went on with my day. But it was subliminal, and without any effort, he imparted me with some of the peace that seemed to hang around him like fruits on a tree.

There was nothing extraordinary about our meeting, and that’s what I found most extraordinary.

I better get this written down before I blink and February is halfway gone!

So how did January go at school? Not bad, overall. My classes have progressed along just fine, and I’m doing just fine in all of them except for one.

In Human Physiology we’ve covered a lot of material. A lot. The test was actually today, but today is Feb so I’ll talk about this later on. But I’m getting it. I’m not having any problems with the material, and what’s even better, I’m recalling more and more whatever I had learned before and adding it to the new things I’m learning. It’s a bit of a mess in my head because some stuff is recalled in Spanish and other in English, but I can make sense of it just fine.

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My first week back at FIU (and University life in general) is over and I’ve quite a few people wanting to know how it went, so the easiest thing is to write this post.

General

It’s been eight years since I graduated with my BA in English, and seven since I went back (and quickly dropped out of) my Masters, so it’s been a while since I’ve been in a classroom for formal schooling and lecturing. It’s been even longer since my last Science or Math class, and that’s pretty much all I have in front of me now, which makes it even more daunting. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but thankfully, it has been not bad at all.

Since I’m taking general Science pre-requisites I need for the Nursing program, it means I am with mostly freshmen in class, which means my professors are, for the most part, taking the first few class sessions fairly easy. This isn’t the Fall semester, when the freshmen would’ve been right out of high school, so we’ve started digging into our classes proper by the second session, but even so, we’re going at a nice, easy pace. This has been wonderful for me, because it allowed me to get my bearings as well, and ease into University-mind once more.

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I know it’s been a week, but that way I am sure it happened…

I GRADUATED UNIVERSITY!!!

I am finally done with my Bachelor’s Degree in English, and I didn’t do too shabby: I graduated Magna Cum Laude!

I’ll come back later and say more about. Right now it’s bedtime and more jobsearch tomorrow.

– Highmoon
Graduated and jobless