School
Some of you may be wondering why I seem to hate school so much. Well, I don’t hate the concept of school (I think education is very important, and I love learning new things)… I simply hate my particular college experience.
Allow me to present… a day in the life of Jed at school (hopefully this will give you a small glimpse into the terrors I have endured for the past 4 years).
Tomorrow, I meet with my senior design team to “work on our senior design project.” First, let me introduce you to the other three team members…
- Guy #1 — Always late to group meetings. Says he did poorly in thermodynamics because he was tripping on acid.
- Guy #2 — A devoted fan of industrial bands like My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and KMFDM (the latter of which you might remember from the Columbine shooters’ favorites list).
- Girl #1 — One of the few females majoring in Electrical Engineering. Walks like a guy. Dresses like a guy. Hmm…
Surprisingly, they are really nice, easy-to-get-along-with people, so it’s fairly easy to overlook their freakishness, but what I cannot overlook is their complete incompetence! I cannot believe these people are senior engineering students! They have basically turned over all project responsibilities to me because they have no clue what’s going on (with the possible exception of Guy #2). They view me as a “genius,” when I’m simply putting a minimal amount of effort into completing a relatively simple electronics project.
The meeting will basically involve 15-30 minutes of joking around, and then everyone will turn to me and ask, “What now?”
AAARRRGGH!
You may be thinking, “why do you continue to subject yourself to this, Jed?!?” Well, folks… unfortunately, it’s too late to turn back now. I’ve devoted WAY too much time, effort, energy, and money into getting a degree at Iowa, so it would be crazy to quit when the coveted diploma is less than a year away.
In the past, I thought I might want to do grad school at Iowa next year, but now I’m not so sure… maybe I’ll start over as a freshman at a private school and try for a normal, enjoyable college experience in a non-scientific field of study. Or maybe I’ll get a full-time job. I don’t know.
What is the moral of this story? Frankly, I’m not sure yet (I’ll think about that when I have more time). I just felt like I needed to rant about things for a bit.
Posted: March 25th, 2008 under Thoughts.
Comments
Comment from Jed
Time 2008/03/25 at 9:46 pm
Thanks Bethany. You’re right… I think that once I have my degree, I’ll look back on it as a worthwhile experience. It’s just really REALLY hard to see things that way right now!!
Comment from Bethany Wheeler
Time 2008/03/25 at 9:35 pm
Ya, I know what you’re talking about. The reality of it is that your parents raised you to have a good work ethic, and you have a leadership quality that other students sense, thus… they follow. I’ve been in this situation before, complete with 30 mins of goofing off before anyone else is ready to actually work (or watch you work). Oh, well. On the positive side of things, it’s a great opportunity to be looked up to by non-christian people and be a good example.
And no matter how hard the learning experience has been, I have to think that the knowledge gained has made it worthwhile. Definitely not a failure.