Saturday, December 18, 2010

Hope To Come Out On Top


That's what my desk looked like earlier this afternoon, with the addition of a few post it notes, a pen and a cell phone piled on after the picture was taken. Though it may resemble the desk of someone preparing for the SATs, I can assure you those days are far behind me. Those are actually course catalogs, schedules and notes, and that might lead you to the true goal of this endeavor. At two o'clock this afternoon, my online registration appointment came up, and I started punching in call numbers like a mad man. After some forty five minutes, I had made my attempts at any course which might interest or benefit me in the least, and that is no exaggeration. The only classes that escaped my net were those closed to registration and duplicates of others on my list. Now, why would I take things to such an extreme?

Well, those who frequent this blog with some regularity might remember my post from the end of October entitled "The Class Is Full," but I'll summarize it in saying that my last enrollment experience was anything but successful. In an attempt to remedy the situation, I determined to attack the next opportunity in a much more proactive manner. So, in the weeks leading up to my registration time, I actively educated myself on the subject matter and scheduling of all courses to be offered, and I made a list of those that were of interest. I prioritized the list from most desired to least desired, and I filled a couple more pages with classes that held little in terms of scholastic gain but that would, in their own way, benefit me even a bit. Fast forward to a couple days ago, and I checked in on the lists of open courses, watching their virtual doors close one by one, but still keeping track of the trends of those still plausible. Not that I needed the digital reminder of my registration, but when my phone's alarm rang this afternoon, it was go time. I entered a series of numbers which has started to become all too familiar, complete a couple online prerequisite quizzes that had slipped my mind, and submitted my proposed schedule.

In the end, I was only able to successfully enroll in 3.0 units, but I didn't stop there and added myself to the waitlist sections of another 38.0 units. That may seem a little excessive, especially considering this is merely an intersession, but leaving sensibility to hinder my possible success did not seem reasonable or even logical. These are merely waiting lists, and they don't imply that I truly intend to find myself in that many hours of class. That would be absurd. They are merely attempts and reflections of my hope that at least a portion might stick and that I might find myself enrolled in enough classes to categorize as a full-time student's course load. That is what I intend to call myself, even if it takes until spring term classes begin in February. That would, however, present itself as a worst case scenario, and definitely a scenario I would prefer to avoid. I hope stacking the odds in my favor will have some positive impact in preventing such a drastic circumstance. I see it as a numbers game, and, much like the darker pages in the picture above, I hope to come out on top.

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