We finished our first quarter of graduate school together, Derek's first and my 3rd! It was a pretty rough go, for Derek especially as his workload was one of the worst I have ever seen and it was his first quarter. We had papers and a ridiculous final exam for International Comparative Politics: States in the 21st Century (sounds terrible, right) due at midnight on Friday and we both worked on them right up to the day.
Here's the story. I finished at 5:00 that day because I am a non-competitive socialist (and also very much on top of my game) and so divided up the research needed for the final exam essay questions with other class mates. My classmates and I also all spoke often as we answered our questions - it was impossible to cheat, because we all used different country examples, but we advised each other with the full awareness of our professor because that is how the real world works. Derek, on the other hand, the lone-ranger, went at it alone. That, coupled with his perfectionism when it comes to paper writing, meant that while I was out celebrating six weeks of freedom, at the Irish Snug and the Cherry Creek Cricket's happy hours, he was home finishing his paper and then embarking on the final exam with mere hours to go before the deadline. Please note that the final took me probably about seven hours and he had not even started it at 8:00 PM, so I was a little stressed for him and when I expressed my anxiety, he told me he didn't like my attitude and went out for a quick bite to eat, came back and finished the exam in time! Wow. It was a major week, but we survived and hope to have good grades to show for it.
Here's the story. I finished at 5:00 that day because I am a non-competitive socialist (and also very much on top of my game) and so divided up the research needed for the final exam essay questions with other class mates. My classmates and I also all spoke often as we answered our questions - it was impossible to cheat, because we all used different country examples, but we advised each other with the full awareness of our professor because that is how the real world works. Derek, on the other hand, the lone-ranger, went at it alone. That, coupled with his perfectionism when it comes to paper writing, meant that while I was out celebrating six weeks of freedom, at the Irish Snug and the Cherry Creek Cricket's happy hours, he was home finishing his paper and then embarking on the final exam with mere hours to go before the deadline. Please note that the final took me probably about seven hours and he had not even started it at 8:00 PM, so I was a little stressed for him and when I expressed my anxiety, he told me he didn't like my attitude and went out for a quick bite to eat, came back and finished the exam in time! Wow. It was a major week, but we survived and hope to have good grades to show for it.
Derek wants me to mention that although I was done first, he gets better grades! (Once he did when he got an A- and I got and A-/B+)
I say, "So what!"
We both worked some on Saturday and enjoyed the feeling of having nothing hanging over our heads. Well, I have some small things for Namlo and IDE to do, but nothing compared to the massive projects we had to produce these past ten weeks. The next day Derek had to work again, but me and Rachael, Chris, Ashley and Tim went hiking to enjoy the amazing sunshine Denver has been experiencing. The trail chosen was up near Boulder, labeled "difficult" and was 7.65 miles, so am a bit sore today.
The weather has been lovely here. It snowed one nice snow a couple weeks ago but it melted by afternoon because the earth was so warm. There have been a few gloomy days, but most days have been bright fall experiences. Too bad they were experienced through the library windows!
