I never learned good study habits. I learned how to learn things quickly; I learned how to write exceptionally well; I learned how to use those two abilities to coast at every opportunity. And it's been a bitch of a thing.
Brenda is me. I was a smart kid who moved to a small South Georgia town, and I never had to put forth the least effort to make A's. College was a terrible shock to me, since I didn't have the foggiest idea how to study. In high school, all I had to do was read the book. I can pretty much remember anything I've read and I read fast. I found these talents of no help at all in organic chemistry.
I have several friends who have had terrible times with their teenage daughters, both bright girls who simply won't do the work, no matter how much they're punished or rewarded. In one case, I think it's because the cool kids don't study. In the other, schoolwork apparently got in the way of her memorizing The Lord of the Rings.
The only way I can learn something now is if I can find a way to hook the information into my existing knowledge matrix in a meaningful way. I've also got to be able to come up with a good reason to keep the information. Knowing the declension of a French verb is all well and good but disappears if I never need that verb. I have a very Trivia Pursuit sort of brain, lots of factoids with interconnected reference tags, but not much for integrating theories or things like that. Hubby's gotten to the point where if he needs some obscure information he'll say "Access" to me, which somehow triggers the reference librarian in my cerebral cortex.
My last year of high school was a wake up year. The whole group of kids who had coasted through math mostly all flunked the first Calculus test (I think the teacher did that on purpose for exactly that reason). Our English class jumped right into James Joyce and had papers that could only be researched at a University library (where I discovered that most of the books on the poet I was doing a paper on were not in English), the Chemistry teacher (who had a PhD) held extra classes at his house becuase there was too much to cover in class, the Biology class required insane amounts of homework, and I was just glad I had a couple of normal classes. Plus I got my ass kicked in academic contests a few times. Then I went to college where almost everybody was top of their class. Any illusions of super-smartness were pretty well squished.
I did fairly well in high school. Not hte first two years, but my jr and sr years. I was at a good school that was interesting. But because I was trying to make up for classes I failed I never did any of the harder classes. I was going to graduate without taking Algebra 1 and 2 and geometry. I had finished Algebra 1 my jr year, but hadn't done Algebra two and was put in geometry by my school. I went to the Adult continuing Ed center three times a week for Algebra 2.
I had Geometry last period, so I went straight to that into Algebra 2 and those classes were mostly self paced with out a lot of help. I don't remember what grades I ended up with, not As ,but Bs and Cs.
Emmett spoiler for Raq:
He played cards with me tonight and used his Doc Holliday accent the whole game. Then he referred to his just finished sewing project as his "raging ball of fluff."
God DAMN it.
I HATE hating being in love.
Sorry if this is a tight-diamond-shoes complaint. I'm just not loving the experience of falling madly for somebody who will likely break up with me in the long run for reasons completely beyond my control. It makes the honeymoon period so bittersweet when, really, only the sweet should be there.
It makes the honeymoon period so bittersweet when, really, only the sweet should be there.
When I was 10 I used to feel this way about Whoppers. "Every bite takes me one step closer to being finished with this beautiful hamburger! I can't enjoy it because it's already slipping away!"
It was the opposite of zen.
It was the opposite of zen.
I am stealing this expression, and using it at every opportunity from now on. Many of which will likely be inappropriate.
Just so you know.
