LittleJudy.com

Back To Normal (such as it is)

Mi clase de español is over. All I have to do is take my final on Monday and then I'll start getting a good night's sleep on a daily basis again!  Waking at 8 a.m. and working till 9 p.m. four days a week ain't easy.

Will I do it again next year? I'm not so sure. It really wore me out, but it sure was great getting 3 credits in six weeks.

So I'm on summer vacation again until the end of August when I will be going to class 2 days during the week and once on Saturday. 

I'll be taking Intro to Music, Intro to Digital Media, and Intro to Reporting.  Since I've been reporting about music in the digital media space for the last 12 years, I think it'll be an easy 9 credits. But you never know!  I figure you can always learn something new, right?

My Most Excellent Paper

I got an "excellent summary" comment on my first homework assignment, a summary of The Federalist, #51. This was the first college homework assignment I've done since 1988!

Believe me, it wasn't easy breaking down what the heck James Madison is saying since his writing is couched in 18th century bluster. But I must've done something right since the professor said it was an "excellent boiling down of the arguments" Madison makes in the paper.

I agonized over the next assignment which I wrote yesterday. I was supposed to define the difference between Madison and Alexander Hamilton's writing. The Federalist papers were a group of 85 essays published in New York in 1788 to convince the state's delegates to ratify the constitution. They were published under the pseudonym "Publius" but they were written by Madison, Hamilton and John Jay (yeah, the guy they named the college after).

At first it was really hard to define the difference between Hamilton and Madison, because to my 21st century ear they sound very much the same. So I figured, okay, I'll turn in early for the night (11:30) and then get up early and write it. I got into bed, read the essays again, and just as I was drifting off to sleep it all became clear to me. I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and it was even clearer, so i got up and wrote the essay.

Tune in next week to see how I did!

WhereWas I?

During class a few weeks ago I realized how much I didn't know about the American Revolution. I tried to remember studying about it in school, but I don't think I really ever did.

So where was I? How did I miss this stuff?

When I was in high school, my goal in life was to be a choreographer. Although I had some great teachers and I was an honor student, academics didn't really matter all that much to me.  I researched the requirements for getting a high school diploma in Michigan and then set about taking summer school and correspondence courses so i would not have to take any academics during my senior year.

I took 20th century American history, and a Black history course.  They were both great classes, but I sure missed out on all sorts of other stuff that I didn't really care about at the time.

Going back to school at my age and not having the pressure of really needing a degree makes it so much more fun. I'm in school because I want to be there, not because I have to be there. 

I love leafing through the catalog and figuring out what courses I'd like to take.

Maybe next semester I'll check out some of the clubs ... or pledge a sorority like Danny suggested!

I Remember Shirley Chisholm

Í'm only taking one class this semester.

Why?  Because my measles shot immunity wore off, and I have to be fully immunized before I can take more than three credits. 

I had mumps when I was a kid, and I am still protected against rubella, but I have to get an MMR shot anyway since they don't give single measles shots anymore.

The one class that I'm taking is an introduction to U.S. government. 

I am older than all the other students in the class. In fact, most of them are freshmen. 18 or 19 year old freshmen.

I am eleven years older than THE PROFESSOR.

We're covering the early days of the U.S. Constitution and reading The Federalist papers by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay. I'm enjoying it, but then, I enjoy learning anything because I'm such a nerd.

I looked ahead at the syllabus and realized that we'll be covering events in history that I actually lived through. We'll be talking about the women's movement, the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other people and events that I remember happening around me as a child.

As a matter of fact, today the professor asked, "Who knows who Shirley Chisholm was?"  Nobody did -- except me of course.

I raised my hand. I could picture her in my mind, the glasses, that she was slender, but I couldn't remember if she was a senator or a representative. But I remembered that she was one of the first (turns out the first) female African-American elected to congress.

The professor asked if anyone knew when she was elected to congress. "1980?" somebody called out.

I raised my hand again. "1970 or 71 I think?" I tried to remember how old I was when I first heard of her and worked from there. He looked surprised, actually, that I knew this and said, almost quizzically, "yeah, that's really close, it was 1968."

I think that was the year I got my last measles shot.

It's kind of sad, really, that the female students don't know who she was, and what challenges she faced at that time.

I wonder if they realize how far we've come in the last 40 years.

Boomer Babe In College

Last year I decided to go back to college.  I applied to Hunter College which accepted all 23 of my credits, making me an "upper" freshman.

I had forgotten about all the red tape one faces in college, so I didn't stay as on top of the admission process as I should have. As a result, I wasn't fully accepted and able to register for classes until this semester.

My cube-mates at work have urged me to blog about my experiences as a grown-up amid a sea of teens and twenty-somethings at school.

So here I am.

For now, I'll be blogging about my college experience here on LittleJudy.com and tag the posts "college."