Tag Archives: college

When a bio major takes an art class

If you just look at my blog, you’ll know I’m not that great at drawing. It’s pretty clear that the only thing I know how to draw are people, and even then those people are frumpy and cartoony and disproportionate.

And if you read my blog, you can probably can tell I like comics. I do. One of my dreams is to, one day, publish my own comic book. Of course, with my art skills as they are right now, this probably isn’t doable. My imagination is restricted by my sheer lack of drawing skills. This is sad. This needs to be fixed.

So I thought that it would be a great idea to take an art class this semester. Foundations of Drawing 1, to be exact. I could learn art! Learn to draw! Improve my art skills!

Except, I forgot that this was college. Where we are graded on merit in addition to effort. Also, I forgot that I was a biology major.

My first day of class looked a little like this:

I was pretty nervous. I was the odd man out, after all. What was I doing here? I can’t draw the way all these kids can!

I knew I would have to try hard to get a good grade in this class. Our first assignment was to go outside and draw landscapes. So, on a nice fall afternoon, I went out and sketched…

The results were less than spectacular.

Our second assignment was about composition. We were to draw objects and try to frame them nicely. I tried my best, and…

I actually really love my art teacher. She’s super-nice, really fair, and very sensitive about critique. She understands people who are coming from another major, though she still expects you to produce good work. However, she’s also an art teacher. Like how some people don’t understand scientific jargon, I don’t really get art terminology.

So I was really nervous when I handed in my first graded homework assignment. Every homework we hand in is peer-critiqued. In other words, we hang everyone’s stuff up on a wall and bash them, one-by-one. I knew my homework was bad…

I’ve been struggling a bit this semester, as my classes (especially this one) have been more time-consuming. I was also convinced that I was going to fail this drawing class. I seriously considered dropping it, and called my sister in a panic.

I decided that it all hinged on what I received on our first graded homework assignment. The one where my composition was poor, that is. Our professor handed back our work…

I GOT A B! I got a B. Despite my art being awful, I didn’t fail!

And that is probably the only time I will be happy with getting a B.

Exhibiting the warning signs of super-nerdy syndrome

I mentioned it before.  This semester has been, for me, so far, to use Californian slang, hella hectic. All my classes are time-consuming. I’m trying to both be social and not fail out of college at the same time. I haven’t even had time to go to the gym. I haven’t even had time to blog. I’m at the end of my tether.

And when a person’s at the end of their tether, survival instincts kick in. Except when you’re me, a stressed out college kid, survival instincts actually means super-nerdy mode. 

Yes. I’m no pre-med student, but I have diagnosed myself with super-nerdy syndrome. Not the I-like-video-games-and-comics-nerd, but the I-study-so-much-I-need-glasses-also-I-don’t-sleep nerd.

I might be wrong on this, though. There are greater nerds than I. Read the symptoms and tell me what you think.

1. I study until I am about to fall asleep on my textbook

Seriously, I determine my bedtime by the time in which I am about to pass out. Sad? Yeah.

2. I passed on watching anime to study instead

3. I had this conversation with my sister

4. I react to this Noah and the Whale song like this:

I have a problem. But it’s alright. Grades are good for something, right?

To be honest, I only know how to make frozen waffles.

I recently moved back to school, which is why I’ve been away from the blogosphere for a few days. Class and work and catching up with friends made things immediately busy.

Those are normal, though. This year I have something else to take up time:

This year I’m living in an apartment-style dorm. (Still on campus, mind you. Northeastern kids are required to live on campus for the first two years.) Having a kitchen means I’m not required to get a meal plan. I happily opted out.

And that means for the last week I’ve had to cook for myself. Here’s how it’s been going:

Alright, so maybe I’m exaggerating. I can cook more than just stir-fried vegetables. Why, I can even make

Fine, I admit it. I don’t actually know how to cook. I’m not the perfect domestic woman, it’s true. But I’m trying to cook healthy! And go to the gym! Except, of course, I’m in college…

Whatever. We can’t all be perfect model citizens.

So let the year begin!

How to deal with stress

It’s that time of semester again:

I believe this happens every semester. Where students reach their saturation point, and are ready to go home and drink martinis on the beach. Alas, there is a month left in the semester. What’s a girl to do?

I’m a pretty high-stress person, so over the years I’ve developed a coping mechanism. You know, to keep my sanity.

Most people recommend taking breaks. However, I am far too neurotic for this to work.

In the end, I find that the most effective way to reduce stress is to remove the cause. Meaning I have to get my sh!t done! Or I will never be at peace.

So, to all the students out there? Struggling and stressing and having a rough time of it? GOOD LUCK! YOU CAN DO IT! You’re not the only one trying to make it through the year! Never lose sight of the white sands and pina coladas awaiting you in the near future!

(Actually, I think I just stress out too much. It’s probably just me.)

A mid-life crisis at age 18

Oh crap. I did it again.

So I was in a “service-learning” class. Where I go and teach biology to middle schoolers. Not only that, but we were required to blog about our experiences in a private, school-run blog.

Our final blog had to be “reflective.” Talk about what we learned overall. And of course, what do I do? I draw another comic. This is such a terrible habit.

I started it out like this: (click for full size)

(She did. She suggested we draw a stick figure of “me from August” and “me right now.” So I complied! And thus I drew this:)

So, yes. I am in the middle of a mid-life crisis. In other words,

I think I knew this from the very beginning, but I’m not the type of person who could be a doctor. Becoming a doctor is a huge commitment. You have people’s well-beings in your hands. To be a doctor, you must be kind. Confident. Compassionate. Patient. Empathetic.

I’m just… well, I’m just not any of those things.

Being a doctor is an amazing and admirable thing, but I don’t think I could handle it. I don’t have the people skills. I’m incredibly impatient. I lack the kindness. And, when I think about becoming a doctor, it never really appeals to me.

I mean, my only real motive for pursuing pre-med would be

And of course, this is not the best reason to become, well, anything.

So I’ve got to be frank with myself. I’m not cut out to be a doctor. I’m just not that person. It’s a job that I feel like I, well, wouldn’t enjoy at all. But of course, since I no longer have pre-med as my path, I am now thrown into

It’d be so much easier if I just had a solid, clear-cut goal to work towards. I might not be a wonderful person who wants to HELP EVERYONE!… but I definitely am a workaholic. I just need to find something that I’m both passionate about and can make money with. It’s the combination of the two that’s the real problem.

(By the way, I’m not changing my major or anything. Bio is pretty interesting. And truly, this isn’t a groundbreaking change. Since biology majors cover all the pre-medical required classes, I could always decide I’m pre-med at any time. But I’m done fooling myself. That’s all.)

Screw finals, tomorrow’s Christmas

One day, my suitemates and I were looking at our cheerful Christmas décor and decided it needed a little something extra.

Thus, we decided, that before we all headed home, we would have a wonderful Christmas morning of our own! We would wake at dawn, open gifts, and share some holiday cheer!

Of course, this was in the middle of finals week. It matters little. Christmas takes priority over grades any day.

So we all went out, bought gifts for each other, and stuffed them into each others’ stockings. Stockings? Oh yes, stockings. My suitemates went so far as to obtain matching stockings, each in a various ghetto-fabulous print:

Thus we waited in anticipation for Christmas morning to come. Or more like passed out in bed until somebody woke us up.

And we all opened our gifts! It was delightful. We all obviously have very mature tastes.

And finally, our dear suitemates had a “Christmas surprise” for us!

Though we had trouble breaking it open.

It’s okay. We’re college kids. We can solve this, no problem.

And the piñata opened, with plenty of goodies inside.

Ah, yes. My suitemates are wonderful people. And that is how we celebrated Christmas at 7 in the morning! Though afterwards, we all headed straight for our beds. Except for one of us—she had to head to a final. All in the spirit of Christmas!

Our dorm room is going to catch on fire any second now (Merry Christmas!)

It was Sunday night.

My first final was in 5 days.

And this is what I was doing.

My dear ol’ roommate decided that our room need a little wintry cheer, so she went to Target and got us some! And brought back a sack o’ goodies.

And, of course, we spent the whole evening decorating and not doing any work at all.

So now our room is effectively a fire hazard, filled with forbidden Christmas cheer! Shh… don’t tell the RA. Besides, we keep all the lights off whenever we leave the room.

 

And now all I want to do is go home and eat some plum pudding. Excuse me while I go cry into my textbooks, listening to Christmas music that tears at my heartstrings.

(By the way, if you noticed that the drawings are particularly horrible today… that’s why. Finals time!)

I am too busy

This is the state I’m in right now: (and in advance, I apologize for the crappier-than-usual-art, unwarranted complaining, utter scrubbiness and general messiness:)

I needed to vent some stress. It’s also my poor excuse for a viable blog post. It’s just that on some days, I barely have enough time to run to my dorm room to grab a snack between classes/working/volunteering, and that’s a little frustrating to me. It’s too easy to complain, though– what I really need to do is suck it up! And stick it out! It’s only a year. I’ll make it through, somehow…

Free time? What’s that?

Some things are eating my time. More like devouring. College kids don’t sleep? Yeah, it’s true. For me, this is for a couple of reasons:

1. My job.My job as an office assistant, more specifically. Though I only work twice between classes and once after class, it’s still, you know, a time commitment.

2. Volunteering. I’m part of the Civil Engagement Program (CEP)  a community service initiative that requires students receiving full-tuition scholarships to volunteer at least 100 hours a year. I have to partner up with a local organization and work there at least five hours a week– so I’ll be starting next week with Sociedad Latina. I’ll be designing and teaching a biology curriculum to underprivileged Hispanic girls.

3. School. Naturally. Studying and schoolwork takes priority, and time.

All of these together I could handle pretty reasonably, I think. But then one more– just one more opportunity came by that I couldn’t let slip away.

It began before the school year even started:

I applied for the job and included the link to my own blog. Though I was in the mindset of my sister, who said:

As it turns out, my blog is good for something after all! Just recently, the professor running the study at Northeastern sent me an e-mail:

It’s a long story, but I would basically create a daily comic strip about a character trying to lose weight using the study’s cell phone app. I’m not sure how much more I can reveal, since this is a study-in-progress. More importantly, the professor is conducting the study with researchers from Duke University. If they didn’t approve of his idea of incorporating comics, I would be out of business.

So I created some sample comics and sent them in. And waited nervously for two days…

But then, I got:

So I need to create a year’s worth of strips– 365 comics– ASAP. It’s more or less like creating a newspaper-style daily strip, four panels, black and white, for a year. This is a paying job, which is beyond me– getting paid for drawing? Impossible! So now, I’ve got:

It’s a lot. But I’m too stubborn to give up any of them. I want to do everything! It’s a problem. But I’m super-determined to do this. I can do it. It just means less free time and less shut-eye. I think it’s a fair trade.