Last of the Finals

As of today all my finals are complete and effectively, my time as a freshmen at Lewis University is complete. All I await now is to make a couple of revisions to a college writing portfolio and packup and head on home. To be honest it still has  not hit me yet with the year being over as there is always more work to be done here before I leave. Once I return home I have one days rest followed by starting work, beginning to follow a strict workout regiment. This part of my summer will last me a few weeks. Once a couple of weeks pass I'll take a vacation to visit my grandparents down in Missouri. Lewis airport is having a fly in pancake breakfast at the airport on campus so I intend to visit there with my grandfather then fly down with him to Missouri to spend time with them for a spell. After awhile I will fly back on the airlines and begin to take calculus classes over the summer at JJC and do research for the chemical physics department here at Lewis. It will be a good time I say. It shall be a busy summer but ultimately it will be a productive one that will lead me to becoming a better person and allow me a greater capacity to strive for excellence in the following fall. Summer will not necessarily be a break but a break from the regular grind and a time spent doing things that aren't simply academic. Freshman year is in the books.

Self-Renouncer

When I was transitioning from high school to college I became very interesting in philosophy and I found a passage from one of my favorite philosophers, Friedrich Nietzsche that became very close to me and something that I held in the back of my head,

 

"What does the self-renouncer do? He strives after a higher world, he wants to fly longer and further and higher than all men of affirmation - he throws away many things that would impede his flight, and several things among them that are not valueless"

What I got from this is that I need to focus on what will propel me along in life and get rid of the things which will be in my way,  They may be good things, like friends, family, and joy from doing things that make the heart swell, however they do at the end of the day impede the flight. These things are very important indeed but they sacrifice from the main goal and that is to fly higher than those around themselves. To me the quote can come off as lofty and rather dark as the philosopher is suggesting sacrificing many things that are good and necessary to the person. One can look at this however that these are the toll one pays, so that one may become a success in the light they have decided for themselves. For me I need to remember to stay true to this "self renouncing" and make sure that I stay true to my goal.

"With this effect, however, which he makes upon us he is well content: he wants to keep concealed from us his desire, his pride, his intention of flying above us. Yes! He is wiser than we thought, and so courteous towards us this affirmer! For that is what he is, like us, even in his self-renunciation." - Friedrich Nietzsche 

Find Something Your Great At

Ever since I went to an event at the aviation department last Monday, the gears in my head have been turning. This was one of the first times I got a chance to look into the aviation department at my time here at Lewis and actually see other people in the field. What brought me to the event was world renown air show pilot Patty Wagstaff came out to talk to the school and tell some stories. What I came away from that event and what she talked about was that you need to find something that your good at for people to notice you, from there the opportunities start to open up. This got me thinking whether or not physics was the right path for me to be on or not. What it came down to was the fact that mathematics is not my strong suit and I wanted to make sure I was not wasting my time with a field that I would never be great at because my strengths do not lay in the field. What I am coming to find however is that you have to build your strengths up to where they need to be so that you can be the best in the field. Aviation I feel I simply have a head start because I have been surrounded by aviation since I was a kid. Science is something that is new to me and something that I necessarily have not taken to naturally. so it becomes important for me to begin to work on these skills more so that I am achieve the same level of fluency that I do with my interesting in aviation. Once I become good at science and mathematics I think that then my interest in the field will grow and I can really succeed in the field.

Lack of Food

The one thing I find insane about the way this school works is the fact that the meal plans are cut short a week before finals weeks. Who in there right mind thought that this is a good idea is beyond me. You would think that during finals week is when the students should be pampered the most and have the most stuff available to them as they stressed out studying, and doing a final that will decide roughly a quarter of their grade. For me myself, I'm out of food and its the Thursday before finals week. I am going to end up having to pay for extra money on my meal card, but I am already having many thousands of dollars to do to this school. You would think that the place would at least make sure that their students are fed in the week before finals. I'm just thankful that finals for me are all on Monday so effectively I simply need to find food until then. I can go a few days without food Tuesday and Wednesday as I won't need brain power, simply packing things up so I can wait til I get home, but damn if there was a place to make a budget cut, I'm pretty sure that this wasn't the time and place to do so.

Finals Week

With finals week almost upon us, I have to wonder how this process will go, its starting to become apparent what my schedule for finals has all my finals on Monday. This is going to be either a blessing or a curse, which, I do not know yet. It will be nice to have everything done on the first day of the week but at the same time though its going to be hell taking 3 finals on the same day. I do think I'll be able to manage however. My first final which is chemistry, is a multiple choice scan-tron test which I do not think will be very terrible. The next exam of calculus which is 30 minutes after the first one will be something that is going to take all of my effort, but if I can maintain a level of rest and focus after the first exam I shall be ok. The final exam I'll have one Monday is general physics II which I am not worried about. Our professor promised us that the final can only help us, not hurt us, so it appears to me that this final with be a low priority compared to calc or chemistry. To have all my finals done by 3 PM on Monday will allow me to pack everything up and have plenty of time to work on correcting any writing assignment portfolio which are due Wednesday. By only having that to do, after Monday everything else will be easy.

Calculus Issues

Currently as I sit my worst class is calculus 2. I can say without a doubt that calculus is something that I don't understand and gives me many annoyances. The good part though is that other than calculus I tend to get either As and Bs in everything else I do, so it helps to balance out the hit I will be getting from the calc class. We shall see however, if I keep working at it I should be able to get past this calculus 2 class. My teacher has done a lot to see that we will be in a good position to pass the class with the finals coming and what not. She has dropped a load of bad grades and even made it where we can do extra work and get our lowest grade on the quizzes to be brought up to a 100% which no doubt will help me out with the class. I simply want to pass the class so that I have more options in the future. I am already retaking Calc 1 and it is nearly impossible to find a calc 2 class in the second semester of the summer. Because of this issue I want to pass it now so that I can get what I need to get done in the summer so that I may be able to continue on my track.

College Finals

So glad to be finally more or less done with learning material and I can finally focus on studying for the finals. A part of the schooling process I am not a fan of is doing a massive amount of homework when in reality I simply need to sit down and look over the material. With homework having impending deadline it becomes a pain because instead of doing what I actually need to do to know the material I have to get the crap out of the way so I have time to work on the real meat and potatoes of what I have to do. Hopefully in the future with my next semester having larger spans of downtime, I can get my homework done more efficiently and then I'll have time to simply look over my material. Next semester will be better than the previous, that I have no doubt about. It comes down to simply trying to get over this remaining hump that is finals, and then surviving my summer college schedule. I look forward for the summer however, I think my schedule will work out in a way that will college me and allow myself to grow. Not only in the area of schooling, but I'll have a more balanced lifestyle.