Monday – 5th December
It was a pretty standard day. I went straight home after class and just ended up sleeping early. These last few days of school are an intense battle of motivation.
Tuesday – 6th December
The physics lab final was pretty straightforward since I had already taken physics 3. My calculated grade was a high B, but it was a grade where no matter how poorly or well I did, it would still be a B. I did my best anyway, just in case I get bumped up or something, but I doubt that would happen. Work was okay as a lot of people didn’t show up for their appointments, giving me time to do my own studying. I stayed in school till almost 11, just doing the thermodynamics homework, but I managed to do all the questions on my own, and figured everything out, which meant I wouldn’t have to really study too hard for the final, just do some revision.
Wednesday – 7th December
The last day of classes went back really quickly, and it felt like a huge burden was finally released. For the science and technology writing class, we were treated with a field trip to the NextGen test bed, which we were supposed to write our final story on. I had intended to just ignore the story, as Prof. Ziegler drops the lowest grade, and I already had A’s on everything else, but he wouldn’t let me skip it.
Before I had to go there though, the Sport Aviation Club had a relieve your stress event by beating a car. I paid $3 for 5 hits with a sledgehammer, but the damn car was a Volvo, and it could take a beating.
The NextGen Test Bed was actually a pretty interesting place to visit, and I can definitely see all sides of the story about how the new air traffic control system would affect everybody. It would be a worthwhile story to run in the Avion at a later date as it pertains to a lot of students.
I was ridiculously tired when I went home, and I think I slept at something like 10p.m., even though I had the NextGen story due the next day. My writing abilities have reached a point where I can write very quickly under pressure and still churn out quality work. I suppose it’s because I spend time outside thinking about how to write the story, instead of staring at the screen blankly; by the time I get to the computer, it normally flows out very quickly.
Thursday – 8th December
I was supposed to wake up early to write the stories, but I snoozed a little too much, but I still managed to finish them in time, and even had time to edit it thoroughly. I got a good grade for it in the end too (100!), so I have good faith in my writing skills. Unfortunately, it seems my flair for writing lies solely in the domain of more scientific/engineering things. I’m not doing too well in the news writing class where the stuff is generally just “news,” whereas I’m performing excellently in conveying technical topics to the lay person.
I had a quick lunch and went to school in a wetsuit to hand in the final papers before going for a session. It was the first time in a few weeks where I actually had some time, energy, and waves to go surf. Unfortunately, I didn’t account for the current and it ridiculous to the point where I didn’t even catch a wave.
Friday – 9th December
The designated study day before finals saw me camping out the library where I got a lot of work done. I didn’t really have to do anything for thermodynamics, so I basically focussed most of the time on aerodynamics. I put in quite a lot of effort, but calculation of the grade I needed meant a perfect on the final to get an A. It’s a case of too little too late because the first test was the one that killed me. I guess it’s just my luck that I had a professor like Golubev. He’s gotten a bad reputation among the undergraduates for a reason.
Saturday – 10th December
Reggie made an awesome omelet for brunch before we both headed for our respective exams. The thermodynamics exam was a piece of cake and I felt fairly confident that I had a perfect score because as far as I knew, I didn’t make any mistakes. I spent the afternoon making pasta sauce for us to eat over the week, and also to finish up all the fresh food in the house.
Sunday – 11th December
I woke up early and went to church for mass. Karissa wanted to meet so we hung out for a while. It’s a little sad and weird to see how fast things changed over the course of a semester. For some reason, life in Daytona Beach flies by really quickly. As a friend once told me, the days are long, but the weeks are short. I think that is exactly the case here. In the end, I stayed around school and helped Angelica and Derrika with math while doing my aerodynamics.
