Spring Semester

Let's start out by saying that Spring Semester 2011 was one of the craziest I've ever had. I took 28 credits this semester, which might have been a stupid idea. Luckily it turned out okay.

I took 5 classes and an internship. I took Business Correspondence, which was basically an English class. We learned about grammar and stuff. I've always been pretty good with grammar, but it was interesting to learn all the technicalities behind where commas are placed and whatnot. Although it was at 7:30 a.m., it was pretty fun; my neighbor Kraig was in the class with me and I got to know him pretty well. I'm pretty sure he kept me sane this semester. I came out of that class with an A, no problem. :)

I also took Dress and Humanity. I needed to take it for my Depth Humanities requirement. Oh. My. Gosh. This class turned into a much bigger hassle than I expected. My professor was a way nice lady and I really liked her; I just didn't like how she taught the class. The first couple days of class, she gave us the information for ALL the projects we would do throughout the semester. Good idea in theory, but I feel like we never talked about the requirements for the projects again until they were due. It was super frustrating. Luckily most of the projects weren't that big of a deal. We had to get into groups and do a project on what people wear in other countries (we did Switzerland) and I made a couple of friends through that. Yay friends! We also had to make a portfolio and stuff, but the project that almost made me (and my mom) explode was for the Recycle Redesign fashion show. Everyone in class had to create a (wearable) look using recycled or recyclable material. Some people are super creative and their stuff turned out great. Mine, however, was a mediocre dress made from old bedsheets I found at Deseret Industries. Then I sewed on polka dots that I'd cut out from Capri Sun pouches. I don't know what I would've done without my mom! It all ended up okay and I came out of that class with another A.

I had to take a biology class for my Depth Science requirement. It was called Plagues, Pests, and People. I was a little apprehensive because although I used to be really great at biology, I haven't taken a biology class in years. It ended up being really interesting. My professor was hilarious--he had a very sarcastic, dry sense of humor. I learned a ton and ended up totally dominating my research paper and class presentation. Unfortunately I had to deal with a bunch of obnoxious hooligans that were super disrespectful and loud all the time. Immature people are my favorite... Anyway, I ended up with yet another A. Woot!

In addition to my three MWF classes, I had two night classes. I ended up liking both of them, but I'll say that I will never take another night class if I can help it. Both these classes were about 2 1/2 hours long and extremely difficult. The first, Law and Policy, was taught by one of my all-time-favorite professors, Tony Peacock, which was the main reason why I took it. The reading material was super difficult and a lot of the lectures didn't make sense. I didn't know if that was just because it was once a week and I was out of the class-mode or if it was because the class was a little more disorganized than some of the classes I've taken from Peacock before. I also found out a month or two into the class that it was actually a graduate-level course. Surprise! I ended up with a B+ in that class. All things considered, I'll take it!

The other night class was Preparing for Law School. This was probably my favorite class this semester. And yes, I'm pretty sure we've already established that I'm crazy. Three attorneys that currently practice in Salt Lake drove up to Logan once a week to teach us. It started out just as information about law school, the LSAT, what law school is like, etc. Then they started teaching us a torts class, very similar to what we would see our first year of law school. I learned so much and feel like I can make a much better-informed decision about whether or not I will actually go to law school. This class showed me that I can do very hard things. Weird. For our midterm, we were given two hypothetical scenarios. They were emailed to us at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday and by Thursday night at 9, we had to identify and analyze every potential legal issue. It was supposed to be 20 pages long. Yes, that is a 20-page midterm written in 48 hours. Our final was similar, only we had 20 multiple-choice questions in addition to two essays, which all had to be completed in three hours. Those were the absolute shortest three hours in my entire life. I ended up with a B+ in that class as well. But again, all things considered, I'm very happy with it.

In addition to all this, I was doing a lobbying internship. More on that later.

I know I had some divine intervention this semester. There's no way I could've done it all by myself. I couldn't believe I did it. 18 doesn't seem like too big a number, but when you compare it to some friends and roommates only taking maybe 6 to 12 credits (12 credits is considered full-time), it's a whole bunch. Yay me.

Cumulative GPA: 3.84

On the non-academic side of things, there wasn't much going on. Mostly because there wasn't time for anything else to go on. I didn't have much of a social life, partially because I was living in Logan... I feel like there's not much to do. I made several new friends this semester, but they're "school friends" -- I don't really see them outside of class. Plus, I was driving home once or twice a week for most of the semester, so I didn't interact much with the people of Cache Valley.

Despite my lack of social life, some interesting things did happen with my roommates. At the beginning of the semester, we had a few new girls move in. Three of our roommates moved out in December because they got married, were moving to a sorority house, or are preparing to go on a mission. The new girls that moved in were pretty cool. I got a new bathroom buddy, Megan, who is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. Apart from a little bit of drama near the end of the semester, our whole house -- all 9 of us -- got along pretty well. I'm so glad I got to know so many great girls. Here's a random fun story: the last Sunday of the semester, I was sitting amongst my roommates when one of them got up to bear her testimony. She proceeded to tell us that for the last month and a half of the semester, she had been raising ducks in her room. Ducks. Like, quacking, pooping ducks. How did I not notice DUCKS living in my house?! I have no effing idea. It's a good thing I didn't find out about it earlier, or I probably would have freaked out. Anyone who knows me knows how much I like ducks. Or how much I loathe them, if we're being honest. But when everything came out into the open, there were only about 5 days until I was moving, so at that point there was nothing I could do about it. Ah the joys of roommates. :)

Overall, the semester was a success. I almost went crazy. Okay, I DID go crazy. Thanks to everyone who put up with my psychotic tendencies. My mom probably had to deal with it the most, getting a couple of phone calls from me every day, being forced to listen to my whining and stress-induced freakouts. It's a good thing she loves me :)