uphill

This morning, I was walking to my office after my first class and bumped into an acquaintance from Colorado. We earned our MAs together. On the stairs, we kept glancing at each other and doing double takes. Finally, I was the one to ask from where we knew each other. We reintroduced ourselves. He then shared with me that his adviser whom recruited him to Iowa moved back to Colorado. Today was the kind of day that I was envious of his adviser who got to move back to Colorado. And really, honestly, it is not that I want to be back in Colorado, I'm just down about here.

Remember the "hard" class I blogged about. Well, I had my first quiz in there today. I honestly can't remember the last time that I failed a quiz. Oh wait, yes I can, it was today. I could come up with excuses like, "this is only the second week and we really haven't learned anything in that class anyway" or "he never told us what to study." But when it comes down to it, I didn't know the material. It is not that I didn't study, I most certainly did. It is not that I am not capable of the work, I am. It is that it is just flat out hard for me. This is the first closed note test I've taken here. Up until this point I have refused to memorize and still professionally and personally believe there is little value in memorizing, but my opinions are not going to help me pass.

Friends have given me wonderful advice that I plan to heed and have informed me that the second year is a hard year. I sense the honeymoon of the first year is over and we've all emerged in the thick of things. I'm not down about the program, as a matter of fact, I found my "hard" class to be very interesting today and it felt good to do some writing I had to do. I still think I'm on the right track, but this train is moving uphill slowly.