Back to life

Being here for so long, and consentrating so hard on RA training and my residents has really driven the academic side of Drake life from my mind. But, I realized with a start today that classes start up again on Monday. Soon, I'll be having to balance my RA duties with the responsibilities of being a full-time student.

That's what kind of gets me down about Drake sometimes. The social side of life... like living in the residence halls and doing fun things on campus, is so far separated from the academic side... like going to classes and doing homework.

In high school it was different. Obviously, none of us lived at high school (although, it certainly felt that way sometimes). We go there for seven hours and then we go home. But high school was very social. Classes were social, lunch was social, after school activities were social.. It was all one and the same.

Drake tries to integrate residence life and academics through the First Year Seminar. Basically every freshman has to pick a First Year Seminar and they're roomed with and around other people from that Seminar. Then they're grouped up based on that for Welcome Weekend activites and, of course, they all have class together when school starts.

It's a really smart plan, really. I really, really bonded with my FYS during Welcome Weekend. And it was awesome to have class with them all twice a week since they weren't all on my floor. But, after that first semester, we were all still close and everything, but that whole academic part was completely lost because the class was over.

I'm not sure how to fix it, but there's a creative solution somewhere, I'm sure.

But, I must say, I'm really looking forward to classes starting again (even though I forgot about it). I like having some of my time scheduled out like that. It gives me structure for my day. And it makes me feel as though I accomplished something. Not to mention I like learning things. It sounds weird, but I do. I makes me feel like I've grown or something....

And I guess it's a good thing I like it I guess, because ready or not, another year is upon me.