As of this past Monday, I'm officially in my last semester at college. I've taken on 18 units (translate: 6 classes, for those of you who don't know what I mean), four of which are three hour long Art classes, one English class, and the last is a Computer Technologies course. And as of yesterday, the first week is over. Only fifteen more to go.

The English and Computer courses are lower division, which I chose in order to help balance out the workload that I'll no doubt be receiving from my Art classes. One of these courses is called Senior Projects -- a class where you learn the business side of the major you've chosen, and how to market yourself in that career. As I've never been the type of person who's confident in his abilities or outgoing enough to seek out people, this class is scaring me at the moment. It doesn't help that I've also got a ton of homework to do over the weekend.

So why am I posting a blog instead of working? Don't worry, I'll get to it as soon as I'm done.

I just wanted to post my thoughts about what this means for me. The truth is that I'm scared. I don't think I know of too many people who aren't, when this time finally rolls by. After several years of work, some of it involving the constant changing of majors, you're truly not prepared for what's out there. I guess that this reality finally hit me, because it's my last semester and I'm just as clueless as the next person where I'm headed and what my life will have in store for me. I've got some short term goals: move out, work hard in what field I can afford, practice and get better at my skills. The long term goals... well, I'm still working on those.

But, in spite of that, I'm choosing to continue to do what I've always tried to do: take each day a step at a time. I'm not expecting to land an awesome job right after I graduate (and I've always hated that some of my classmates DO expect that), but I do hope that once this is all over I'll have time to take a breather and relax. I might take a whole year off and just work, and might go on the grad school. I'll use the time to hone my skills day after day, so that I can benefit myself and any future family I might have.

In the meantime, it's time for one final stretch of working hard, so that all this work will pay off. So, I say to all of those out there, in college or not, who are making such big decisions and changes in their lives: Good luck!

And I end this with a quote from one of my favorite t.v. series of all time:

I've never understood this mentality professors (or any schoolteacher) seems to have when it comes to the end of the school semester -- that mentality that says "Hey, students, in spite of the fact you've most likely got tons of finals to study for, I'm going to assign a massive project and/or extra homework due on the day of the final."

I'm not talking about semester-long projects in which you had all semester to finish it (I'm a procrastinator, but I know full well not to be stupid enough to leave a giant project waiting until a day before it's due). I really mean those moments where professors will schedule homework assignment after homework assignment, or even some last minute project that requires a week of work on it before it's done. Why do they do this?

I don't mean to be complaining too much, because it's not as if I'm suddenly running out of time to finish my work -- on the contrary, as of tomorrow morning when I take my last exam, I'm officially done with the semester -- but as a college student who's exactly one full semester away from graduation, I feel like I can speak for most students who are sick of this sort of thing. While I may not be a professor, and therefore am not in a position to really judge the amount of work they have to do, they should also consider our own position. I've had several professors who say they hate the amount of grading they have to do at the end of the semester.

Well, I have a decent solution... instead of bombarding us with last minute busywork that really does not teach us anything, let us worry about actually learning the material at hand to pass our final. After all, isn't that what education is about? That's all I'm saying.

To all students out there, good luck with whatever final stretch of the semester you've got.

I found out yesterday that my school's student union has a computer lab where students can print out 20 pages a day for free.

Awesome, right?!

Oh yes, completely awesome. Except, I feel ashamed knowing that it took me three and a half years to discover that. Granted, all other places on campus only charge $0.10 per page, but still... the amount I could have saved all these years would've been approximately $15.00.

With my home printer currently on the fritz, and having several papers due in the next week -- one of which will be ten pages -- I plan on taking full advantage of this discovery. Too bad I didn't realize it early on. Oh well.

Last week, I took a trip to the orange grove on my school's south-eastern corner. Supposedly, my campus has one of the last natural orange groves in all of southern California. Regardless of whether this is true or not, I still find the place fascinating. I knew there was an orange grove at the campus long before I even entered college, but I only drove by it. What I didn't know, however, until my second year of college was that the orange grove was also home to a pond that catered to fish, turtles, and a flock of ducks. Since then, I've made many trips to the area for peace and quiet. There's just something about being surrounded by orange trees, hearing the rushing of a water fountain, and seeing the life of the pond that makes the area so tranquil and amazing.

I was walking through the area last week while trying to film one of my digital art class video projects. I wanted someplace comforting and beautiful. Since I was at school, I figured the orange grove would be most perfect. I finished my video, but I also took time as I always do while in the area to walk around the pond and look at the animals.