There’s always a siren, steering you to shipwreck
It’s very late at night or very early in the morning, depending on your perspective. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking these past few days, mostly on how best to tackle the final three weeks of the semester. It’s been a pretty tough semester actually, more than I thought. I got back three poor grades on exams I should have done better on save for inexplicible and silly mistakes. It was simply a matter of not performing when it counted.
The title of this post is a lyric from Radiohead’s “There There”, one of my favorite songs by them. I’ve been listening to quite a bit of Radiohead lately, particularly enjoying Christopher O’Riley’s brilliant piano covers. This lyric stands out to me because it is a constant reminder of the difficulty for the next two weeks.
I have never felt this much pressure moving into the ‘end game’ of this semester. Multiple projects, homework assignments, and formal reports all colliding in a perfect storm in a perfect week.
Failing to meet this work head-on is not an option, so there is just one path to take: right through into the heart of the storm.
Keith Said,
April 14, 2006 @ 1:19 am
Ugh, I completely empathize with you. On my last two or three tests I did fairly poor especially in comparison to my normal performance. I even had one of my professors, Dr. Zrull, express dissatisfaction in my performance on his most recent test in Biological-Neuropsychology because I scored an 81 which is abysmally low for me. (I have taken several classes taught by him and never scored lower than an ‘A’ on any of this tests so this only low grade only adds to the insult.) All of the other work I have to complete isn’t helping me with my studies either. Research presentations, data collection, and independent study assignments are mercilessly beating me into the ground as of late. But, stay strong and push through! Only a few more weeks to go…then it’s internship time once again! Woohoo!
Saket Said,
April 14, 2006 @ 7:45 pm
It feels terrible when you let down a professor that you like. One of the bad tests from my analog electronics professor, Dr. Bilbro. He’s my mentor, so I’ve known him since the first semester. He has written recommendations for me (helped me get the Maryland REU) and I’m going to graduate school in the subject area he teaches in. I ace the first test and do well in class, but I get this test back and it’s an 80. What’s worse, I got part of two simple questions wrong. One of my mistakes was so amateur, argh. The same kind of thing happened in the two other tests. Mistakes like those are more frustrating to me than when I honestly don’t know the material.