I’m now a full two or three weeks into my new semester at Vandy, and so my life (finally) is starting to assume something resembling a routine. I’m a creature of routine, so this is a great thing. But what I’m discovering is that, no matter how hard I try to cram in as much reading as possible throughout the week, Wednesdays are basically becoming a nonstop reading fest. That’s largely because on Thursdays, I have back-to-back classes, so come Wednesday, I’m furiously trying to finish up my reading for five hours of discussion the next day.
But it’s going well. I have to say, I’ve been very lucky to be able to take completely awesome classes this spring. I thoroughly enjoy my professors, feel like I’m contributing to class discussions in significant ways, and am reading stuff I should have read ages ago (and, actually, some of it I actually *did* read ages ago, which is awesome!). I’m not getting any research done and am still sorta panicked about that, but I’m reading really amazing stuff and feel like I’ve got some decently good new ideas germinating as a result. That’s always exciting.
What I didn’t expect was that having classes only two days a week (especially having a night class on one of those days) would nevertheless leave me feeling like time is flying by. I’m still completely in awe of this. I swear, it feels like it was just a couple of days ago that I decided to take an afternoon off and go to Opry Mills to do a little browsing. In point of fact, that was nearly a week ago!! Part of the time-flying phenomenon can be attributed to how busy the reading is keeping me, I’m sure, and the other activities I’m cramming into daily life (e.g., working out). But still. I’m at a bit of a loss to understand how it is that we’re fast closing in on February.
At any rate, my point was that Wednesdays are just weird. Intense. Filled with tons of reading (today, for example, I probably waded my way through around 350-400 pages’ worth of material?!), which creates a pretty severe need for breaks (today I gave myself breaks to go to Target and, later, to take a bath in my big tub). But I’m finding my groove. I’m back in the zone that allows me to absorb 350-400 pages’ worth of material in a single day, which is not exactly normal!! 🙂 It feels good.
Aside: I’m not sure I just said anything worthwhile. If I didn’t, please bear in mind that I spent the whole day reading very cerebral stuff! I’m a bit intellectually pooped, y’know? 🙂