I left the Springs this morning, leaving behind my first ever apartment, my dear friends, Colorado College, and, of course, the Block Plan. Everything I've come to find familiar, comfortable, and normal is starting to fade away again. For some reason, this round of goodbyes seemed significantly easier than the first set back in April as I was leaving for London, even though this time I am going to be gone longer, will be going into the experience relatively alone (do Facebook friends count as real friends if you know you are going to be friends with them when you meet them?), will have very limited communication between myself and all the people I love, and a myriad of other reasons that would make one think that it would be significantly more difficult for me to peace out of town this time around. Maybe it hasn't hit me yet. Maybe my subconscious mind thinks that I'm just at home for Block Break until next week. For all you Psychology/Biology/Sociology/-ology majors out there, feel free to correct me if my assumption is way off base; I'll just correct your grammar and syntactical structure within your correction of my misassumption. Did you know misassumption was a real word? I didn't until I typed it and didn't see the squiggly red line of error underneath that is also seen on Microsoft Word and the like. At least Blogger identifies it as a real word. I think. I suddenly feel smarter. Cool!
The Block Plan. The defining aspect of my quirky home institution of Colorado College. That is what I miss already more than anything else. That is what is making leaving CC for the time being so difficult. Yes, I certainly miss my friends, but I'll have new friends soon that will be on this adventure with me to keep my social life exciting. A quick reminder to all you readers about the Block Plan, since I haven't really described it in detail since my earliest entries: Colorado College's unique Block Plan, now adopted by two other institutions of higher learning on this continent, challenges students with the premise of taking one class at a time. One class, or "block," is taught to the same group of students by the same professor for 3 1/2 weeks for five days a week for, generally speaking, three hours a day from 9 A.M.-noon. Labs and movie viewings are held in the afternoon. If you're lucky, you might have a professor during a particular block that will start class at 9:15 or 9:30, which may not sound like much, but makes a HUGE difference on the Block Plan. You see, because everything is so scrunched into just under a month, time takes on a different meaning and level of importance at CC. Days are measured by where they are in the block or within the year. 1st Wednesday, 2nd Tuesday, 3rd Friday, 4th Monday, 2nd Block, 5th Block, and more are common terms thrown around on campus. So far, the Block Plan has given my college experience an extremely different flavor and zest than all of my friends at other schools.
The nice thing about my goodbyes back in April was that I wasn't going off the Block Plan for quite some time. Now, after 11 straight blocks of classes, it's time to move on to a new challenge: the Semester Plan. It's going to be weird, I'm sure. I'll be the only person on the ship with this specific challenge. I'm taking a break from a place where the vast majority of campus is out of class at noon and on their way to lunch in Rastall or Benji's. I'm taking a break from being forced, whether joyfully or disdainfully, to pay perfect attention for three hours every morning on one specific subject. I'm taking a break from papers that have to be conceived, typed, edited, and turned in in under 24 hours. I'm taking a break from reading entire novels in one or two days. I'm taking a break from the "First Day Jitters" every month. I'm taking a break from total immersion. I'm taking a break from all the bizarre idiosyncrasies and peculiarities of the Block Plan. So, I suppose it's just about time then to be a "normal college student." Four classes at a time? I can........try it. I hope everything the Block Plan has taught me (how to plow through a paper in one sitting, speed reading, intellectual finesse, among others) will come in handy when I have four different things to focus on at once.
Except I'm not really off the Block Plan. I still have to finish my final paper for my C Block class, an independent reading on Peter Pan in a 19th century context. Guess how interesting it is. Really, c'mon. Guess.
It's not.
No comments:
Post a Comment