{"id":20999,"date":"2021-05-05T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T16:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=20999"},"modified":"2021-05-04T10:44:53","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T17:44:53","slug":"student-editors-letter-spring-semester-conflicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2021\/05\/05\/student-editors-letter-spring-semester-conflicts\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Editor\u2019s Letter: Spring-semester conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"

With spring classes starting this week, students are gearing up for seven really intense weeks of studying. For me, spring classes have always been a double-edged sword. They\u2019re done quicker, but can a person really learn\u2014actually absorb and keep\u2014information in half the amount of time of a normal semester? Of course some people can, but these courses aren\u2019t for everyone.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re anything like me, you might have tried to talk yourself into it; taking an extra course or two a year can sound pretty appealing. Graduating sooner, getting ahead in life\u2014all those good things.<\/p>\n

The fact that more students don\u2019t do it tells me just how niche spring and summer courses really are. The ability for your brain to process the same amount of information in half the time is a really personal thing. It\u2019s the Yankees of academia: you either love it or hate it.<\/p>\n

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Camosun College’s Lansdowne campus (file photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maybe I\u2019m weird, but I\u2019ve always had mixed feeling about spring and summer courses. The idea of them appeals to me, and, long-term, I\u2019m always happy I took them. One of the most memorable I\u2019ve taken in my very long time at Camosun was Canadian Literature with Nigel Books. (Nigel, if you\u2019re reading this, rock on, brother!)<\/p>\n

But while I clearly remember the majesty of Nigel, Nigel may not remember me. I was completely unmemorable. I loved the course material, but struggled with the pace of it. Reading something as socially loaded as Mordecai Richler\u2019s Solomon Gursky Was Her<\/em>e, as we did for that course, takes time. It takes heart. It takes introspection, and it takes meditation. In a seven-week course, there was time for one of those four things, and that\u2019s because Nigel always puts heart into his lessons, not because I was feeling particularly dedicated.<\/p>\n

I got a horrible grade in that class, and yet, it was one of the hardest and most fun courses I\u2019ve ever taken. That sums up the paradox of spring and summer courses, and it\u2019s a two-sided reality I\u2019m about to embark on again this week.<\/p>\n

What the hell am I thinking?<\/p>\n

I know hard times lay ahead, because of the way I learn. I know that, when push comes to shove, I can do it, but I also know it won\u2019t be pretty.<\/p>\n

But sometimes that\u2019s okay. After all, has anything about the last 14 months been all that pretty? No. Does it seem like we\u2019re carrying on with life, being productive, and moving forward? No, not really. But we are. The extra courses on your transcript prove it, so as we start up a really intense seven weeks, hang on to that, and remember the goal. Focus on the big picture and your goals\u2014as a student and as a person\u2014not the emotion of the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With spring classes starting this week, students are gearing up for seven really intense weeks of studying. For me, spring classes have always been a double-edged sword. They\u2019re done quicker, but can a person really learn\u2014actually absorb and keep\u2014information in half the amount of time of a normal semester? Of course some people can, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-views"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21000,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20999\/revisions\/21000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}