Welcome to Iwaku Nova! I'm sure you'll find a lot of creative and inspirational people here to write with and befriend. We are a pretty cool group....if I do say so myself.
I went to college a few years ago for the first time (I was 41 then) And I remember crying a few times, though not over my own situation but watching younger people with no direction or motivation squandering their time and wasting their money. One particularly hard thing for me was working as an assistant to the history professor and grading tests for her. She had very lax rules about them really. She'd give me 5 things to look for in their essay, and all they had to do was write in complete sentences and have those five ideas in there. Not much to ask of a college level class I didn't think. But then I started grading the tests and I was so shocked by what her students were presenting to her as test answers. Some were a series of horrid sentence fragments that drove my grammar mind insane (I was an English major as well), and some were lost in space idea wise and were rambling on in an attempt to mask the truth of their lack of time studying the material. But there was one that was so ridiculous that I felt the need to comment. This was a class focused on the industrial revolution, and she was an excellent articulate professor. I utterly enjoyed her lectures and never missed one. This kid, in answer to the question 'How has the American industrial revolution directly affected your life?' began his answer with...and I wish I was kidding...George Washington was a great General and leader.... *MIND BLOWN* I had to look at it three times to be sure I wasn't getting essay delirious but no, sadly that was his answer. My comment was, "Dude...check your syllabus and get your brain in the right century of American history." I had to give him a zero. I went back to her and asked how she could handle such things, since she was really an amazing teacher. She said, "I get paid to teach, not to make fools learn." The truth was, that she got paid whether they tried or not. And since hers was a Gen Ed class they would have to take it over and over until they passed. Anyway....all that to say...make the most of it, enjoy the craziness and make memories. I met some amazing people...I need to go back and finish.
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