Crisis Point

Author's Note: These are my friend's words, as he narrated it to me. Any names that are used here were changed prior to making this page to protect all parties.

My co-op quarter preceding this critical juncture as far as my current major is concerned was one filled with bad luck. A few days before my co-op quarter began, I selected a position which was close to me, but in the end it proved very disastrous. I actually received an interview offer from a company that I later co-oped and now still currently at doing part-time work about a couple of days after I made up my mind on my co-op selection. Also, the job I was going to be doing was quite 'menial' by my standards, but one silver lining is that I got to visit my alma mater at one point during that co-op. But the major stinker was that my ex-supervisor caused a major uproar by trying to pull a sleight of hand trick on all of the people currently working, and that got many people up in arms, while I tried to stay calm throughout the mess. Eventually, I had a talk with my co-op advisor and decided that in his and my best interests to end my relationship with that employer after my co-op term expired.

The major challenge of another round of classes in the Summer

Entering my second quarter of classes in the summer for the second time in two years posed to be a major challenge. Last year, in my old major, when I did this, to sum it up, was a total disaster and was hell for me. (If you did not read that section, then this may be of interest to you.) Not only that, but I have another quarter of classes following this quarter, and this particular six-month period is a very critical period for me as far as academia was concerned.

Again, it was a major challenge, only to be compounded by your normal heat and humidity, as well as a major league courseload in respect to what I normally had to this point as well as to the level of burden I've had to deal with in all the summers before this one. However, one major event really made it more complicated, and I was forced to make some emergency trips away from school to tend to that event. This was one of my major crises during this critical six-month stretch of classes.

A course I had in the summer, which was a Writing course, sapped away a lot of my energy and time, and the burden of that course was incredible. Luckily, I had a slightly different Writing course than most of the others had, because there was simply no room left. Not only that, but that course would have added more strain to my already strained summer quarter.

As far as the other courses went, I was really sluggish given that the Writing course was really a pain in the neck. Not only that, but there were several students in a couple of classes which were testing my patience. The only significant ones I want to name were Cardozo, Selma and Jackson that were a pain in the neck for me, but that was the least of my worries. The most worrisome thing for me was about that event which happened all of a sudden.

The quarter went on, and with the Writing course really took a lot of my time, and even some time away from my other courses. One of the courses, though, happened to be a very good one, even if that professor sometimes garbled up his words while talking. On one of the days in that course, there was a major discussion going on, and somehow I got entangled into that discussion which nearly became a filibuster, but somehow was very relevant to what was being taught that day.

As far as the Writing course went, in the waning days of that quarter, I was pretty much exhausted and nearly sapped out of all my energy and strength, as I ended up slumping on my desk during my presentation, which luckily was an informal one. If it was a formal presentation, I would have very likely fainted during that kind of presentation with respect to my level of exhaustion.

However, I managed to avoid even more stress and strain by working on my final paper 48 hours before it was due. It took nearly ten man-hours for me to finish it, and by the time I submitted the final product, I was ahead in schdule by slightly more than one day. Imagine if I actually was working on the paper the night before. That would have been total hell and would have stretched my patience to the max, as well as raising my stress and strain to the max.

When this summer quarter was all said and done, I was pretty much nearly depleted of all my energy and strength, because a good amount of it was exerted for my Writing course, as well as to tend to that sudden event which started a string of crises. However, I did fairly okay with my summer courses. However, at that point, I still had to deal with one more thing: taking care of that crisis situation by having to go out of town for the second time that summer.

There were some silver linings during the crisis and the heat of the summer. Before the first crisis began, I did meet my new girlfriend, Charlotte. Charlotte and I actually talked a few times since I met her. I still got in touch with my friend Veronica, and found out that she moved to the Midwest and was working for a huge corporation there, and that she could get me a position there if I wanted to.

I was fortunate that this crisis cooled down a bit when I went to check on that crisis, but I did realize that I have to keep watch on certain events, lest another such event similar to the first crisis come up again. However, it was a time to lay back and rest before the second half of the six-month critical period of classes....

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