Last semester, although I ended up with an A in both of my classes, the work-load, and homework requirements surprised me by turning out to be a lot harder than I thought they would be! Little things I didn’t expect, like tests, or raising your hand to talk, or the hellishness tricky dynamics of group projects, proved to be very frustrating for someone who has been in the working world longer than most of my fellow students have been alive. I thought college and I would slide into a beautiful friendship like a warm handshake. In reality, I feel like college is trying to kill me!

But, what doesn’t kill you makes you smarter stronger, right? So when it came time to sign up for this Spring semester, I felt both smarter and stronger, like I’d built up enough classroom tolerance to finally knock that darn math requirement off my list. I found a math class on a day and time that worked with my schedule, but by the time I was allowed to register, it had been filled up. Then, I found the exact same thing offered as an online class. Online? Whoo Hoo I thought! Tons of free time, plus the ability to cheat, work independently! This math class is going to be easy peasy… or so I was led to believe…

It didn’t take long for college to sneak up behind me and smack me upside the head. Easy?! Thwack!

I found out that I have to not only discipline myself to watch the online math videos, but then actually do the homework from my notes, and take the online quizzes before the prescribed deadlines. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, taking a math quiz at home after working all day, and having a couple of glasses of wine really doesn’t work out very well. Seriously? I don’t think this is what I signed up for.

In addition to the math class, I also enrolled in a class under the heading of Women’s Studies, called Global Sexualities in Modern Culture. Math and Sex?! Why not?! They go together like…. never mind. In case you haven’t noticed I’m pretty liberal, and I’m very accepting of people’s preferences in how they get their groove on. But lordy, do I have a lot to learn about terminology, and global flows, and preferences! And, while studying sexuality through a global lens has proved to be much more interesting than math, (lets face it, what ISNT more interesting than math?) this one is harder than you might think. Lots of homework, lots of reading, and of course, lots of the dreaded group projects.

I really did think that my second semester would be more like my experience in the corporate world – the more I learned, the easier it would get. Not so much. I have now resigned myself to the fact that no matter how much I enjoy a class, and no matter how much I want to keep learning, college is not going to cut me any slack. I just didn’t expect this – kind of like Jesus didn’t expect Judas to betray him, or like Sirius Black didn’t expect Peter Pettigrew to rat on him…. Et Tu Semester Two?