School's Out for Summer

"School's Out" by Alice Cooper

"Nooooo more pencilsssss, nooooo more boooooks, nooooo more teacher's dirtyyyyy loooooks!"

Um, Sam... Summer is over.

NOT FOR ME! I finished summer session, and I have a week off before I start fall quarter. Yipppppeeeee!

Don't get me wrong. I love school. Not a single week has elapsed since I completed summer session, and I have already started to prepare for the upcoming quarter. With some of the course websites up and running, I was able to read the syllabi, enter important dates into my calendar, and compile a list of required books (it's like the one from Hogwarts but less magical). 

I am tempted to buy and read my textbooks before the courses even begin. However, I thought I would resist my masochistic side and take this time to appreciate all the things that are difficult to do with a demanding course load:

1. Sleep. Enough said.

2. Just lie in bed in the early morning with no blaring alarm to kil- ahem... turn off. It is nice to rise with the sun.

3. Lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling. I do this frequently for study breaks, usually thinking to myself, "I wish I didn't have so much to do. I could just lie here for as long as I want." Of course, when I actually have free time, I never get the urge to do this, but I will oblige Delirious-From-Finals-Sam. 

[Lies on floor and stares at ceiling]

...

[Approximately two seconds later]

...

"Yup. This is boring."

4. Leave work to actually go home and relax. My co-workers often tease me for my measly ten hours a week, but when you add classes and a few internships, it really adds up to much more than the typical forty hours a week. When they clock out, they are free to do what they like. When I clock out, I need to chip away at my ever increasing mountain of work.

5. Work out. Hypothetically speaking... Oh, wait! I did work out! I went stand-up paddling yesterday, and my (lack of) abs are still aching to prove it. Six-pack, here I come.

6. Read books of the fiction variety. I recently finished The Spectacular Now.

7. Watch television and movies. Oh wait, I guess I do that during the school year as well. All the good shows just have to run during the academic year. Six days until Castle!

8. Stay up late because I want to, not because I have to.

9. Rejoice in the return of optimism and self-confidence. Large work loads, unrelenting fatigue, and unfavorable odds tend to scare them away... Poor little guys.

10. Learn new things because even when I leave the classroom, I will remain a humble student.

Reuniting with Beethoven

Computer? Check.

Textbook? Check.

Glasses? Check.

Music? Beethoven.

Today consisted mostly of studying, and it will probably remain that way for the next couple of weeks. Yay! 

[Insert forced smile here.]

To satisfy my ridiculously short attention span(1), I listened to a wide variety of music. However, the majority has lyrics, which proves to make reading difficult(2). To remedy that matter, I played some classical music that I studied in my music appreciation class. Apparently that did not appease my difficulty focusing as I cannot stop obsessing over the brilliance that is Beethoven.

My inner hipster proclaims that it is so "mainstream" to declare Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as my favorite, but whatever... it is amazing (especially the third movement).

Tangential Notes

(1) No, I do not have ADHD; I may exaggerate at times... Interestingly, people often assume that individuals with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) cannot pay attention when, in fact, the opposite is true. 

In my cognitive psychology class, I learned that attention is often compared to a spotlight. When one pays attention to a particular object, their attentional spotlight is directed towards it. ADHD actually manifests in the patient's inability to focus their attentional spotlight. In other words, these individuals attempt to pay attention to too many things at once by rapidly switching between stimuli.

(2) To my dismay, listening to music or watching TV while studying is indeed to one's disadvantage. This is due to the irrelevant speech effect, in which the rehearsal of words (silently in one's mind) is impacted by externally presented verbal information.

However, there is a loophole! The interference only occurs if the information is of the same type. I listened to Beethoven's 5th (an absurd number of times), so it was in no danger of impeding my learning. However, if I had listened to Beethoven's 9th instead, which has lyrics, the interference would be present once again. It is so unfair... I do not even understand German!