Bye for now, Chem~

[pacificpikachu]

After much thought and agonizing and talking on the phone to KK for like three hours, mostly about loltastic things entirely unrelated to school, I've decided to withdraw from Chemistry 1B this semester. I simply don't have the energy for it right now, the teacher seems okay but he's not very approachable/he intimidates me, and Organic Chemistry only starts in Fall semesters anyway so I'll have Spring semester to take it and hopefully have whatever it is holding me back resolved by then.

Gamel, who I like very much and have successfully taken two Chemistry classes with, is teaching it next semester up in Nevada County (where I live, so no hour-long drive) please oh please oh please don't let it be canceled anyway, and KK and I can take it together and then take O-Chem together as well! :D I don't know about you guys, but that sounds perfect to me. It's not going to delay anything because I'm already going to have that semester before I can start O-Chem.

Of course, I decide this literally the day after the add/drop deadline. ;___; So I have to withdraw it, and it shows up on my transcript. I already withdrew one class (also Chemistry) so I feel awful/worry it'll affect my ability to get into vet school, but I doubt it actually will and I just...think this is the right thing to do.

I'll be late adding another lighter class--probably art or mythology or something.

Anyway, I feel so guiiilty and like a bad lazy person but...it's what I had to do, I think. Until this helpless, unmotivated feeling passes, I think Chemistry is a lost cause.

EDIT: I'm going to take DRAWING and possibly Introduction to Mammalogy or a class on Waterbirds! We'll see what happens. :D

Comments

[astralvulpes.livejournal.com]

Whereas I know it is distressing, let me tell you - I've withdrawn from precalculus 3 times before finally passing it on the 4rth try.

From what I know, you can explain your situation or reasoning behind it (if asked) during your interview or things like that. Schools will understand that life happens, and I think if your overall grades are good (you've got a lot of good experience already), than one withdraw or two won't hurt you. ^_^

[pacificpikachu.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you Dani. That makes me feel so much better, seriously. ♥

It's so nice to have a friend with the same goal and major to keep me straight when things get rough. I hope I can do the same for you if you ever need it. :) I really appreciate it a lot, and I mean that.

And yes, I'm not a serial withdrawer or anything, and I agree that the schools will probably understand if I explain it to them. This decision just makes so much more sense than what I was doing.

*Goes to sign up for some fun-but-counts-for-general-ed-classes*

[astralvulpes.livejournal.com]

I think honestly, what a lot of schools are looking for (someone strike me down if I'm wrong) is dedication.

If you were giving up on it forever (which you can't, since it's a requirement), then I could see them perhaps raising an eyebrow at you.

The point is, you won't give up on it, and that is what matters. :D

And no worries. I have paranoias related to vet school stuff all the time. <3 Feels good to have someone in the same boat, I'd say, definitely. :D

[wao.livejournal.com]

I'm not in a position to give any advice but I think it's a good decision overall - I think there's absolutely no point forcing and dragging yourself through what will clearly be an unenjoyable and hence unproductive experience. If you did, sure you'd get the credits and it looks nice on paper, but you just had a very unpleasant semester that would affect all your other subjects too, and is absolutely not worth the result (since you can do chemistry in a much better situation later anyway)

I don't think you should consider yourself lazy for doing this at all. I hope I don't osund presumptuous but I know looking at other people who can "take anything" makes oneself feel weak and wimpy and less deserving of a good place in a hard school. I feel that way all the time looking at my distinguished ex-classmates who are all in some ridiculously difficult course in some prestigious university right now.
But you know what, for all that a lot of them spend so much of their energy being so perfect academically that they've got a SERIOUS lack in things like personal opinion and ethical stands and knowledge of other areas. Some of them are so terribly smart but they have to STUDY MODEL ANSWERS for a freaking general writing paper because they don't know how to formulate non-scientific arguments without seeing lots of examples to emulate from (I'm talking about a paper that should be easy enough to write on the spot if you actually give a damn about the rest of what's going on around you)

And I jut went off very far on a tangent (I should write this tl;dr shit in my own journal amirite?) but my point was supposed to be that um, doing what will obviously make you a more productive and happy learner rather than trying to be "hardcore" and "truly the best" is more likely to make you a much better, much more well-rounded and useful person.
So uh, there!

Enjoy art! (But for the love of god if their art history is anything like the Study of Visual Arts shit I have to do here DON'T TAKE IT... then again it's only a minor thing so it might be a pleasant brainfsck rather than a headbanging torture - sorry, I'm not too enthusiastic about writing bloody essays on Nam June Paik's bloody TVs after all)

What a perfect example of a rambling comment :'D

[pacificpikachu.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the support! I really appreciate your input on it (it made a lot of sense and seriously made me feel better), and I completely agree--it's useless to take a class that I'm not going to enjoy at all and will likely just get frustrated at and settle for a C or something like that.

Also, yes yes yes on people who are amazing at school but not much else. It's easy for me to demean myself at times because not everything in school (and particularly in my science major) comes incredibly easily to me, but at the same time I have a lot of other skills--drawing, writing, animal and medical knowledge, memorizing thousands of Japanese songs (BECAUSE THAT'S SO HELPFUL, haha), and...even more than that. Sometimes I'll befriend the people who super-excel at school and, while this isn't true of all of them, a lot of them don't have much of a life outside of school. Which I could never stand--particularly because my mind is very concerned with storytelling and bizarre imaginings and moralistic gray areas and weird things like that.

As I've said many times, I love your TL;DR, so don't even worry about it. :D But I also like to complain about my own TL;DR, so. I don't even know where I'm going with this, haha.

Turns out I can't take art this semester after all, but I'm planning on it next semester! I need something to kick me in the butt and remind myself that considering myself an artist is all well-and-good but it really isn't all that meaningful if I do nothing but doodle during classes and that's all as far as my artistic output is concerned. [/long sentence]

Anyway, I can hardly keep my eyes open. If I keep typing this will lose sense FAST and then you'll be sitting there trying to decipher it and failing.

[visualise-this.livejournal.com]

And she walks on by as I log in to LJ... hmmmm

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

I don't think you're not the sort of person who gives something up for a bad/stupid reason, with no thought at all (and I do have a few of those on my flist, irritatingly...-_-), so I wouldn't feel guilty and all if I was you - it was probably a good choice, given the circumstances. :) Plus, you're not giving it up for good; just deferring for a semester. Enjoy your drawing class!

[archaneah.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't feel too bad about the W. I'm pretty sure universities look at these things in detail, meaning they'll see the date you withdrew was LITERALLY the day after drop deadline so they'll probably just figure you missed that rather than you had to withdraw due to a failing grade in november (or whatever).

And plus, that means you and me baby!! We're chemical. Ooo yeah. I can just feel the electronegative attraction already!!

It'll be fun.

BTW, unless you're totally set on NCC on M/W you should totally come down with me on wednesday and try to late add anthro 9 (witchcraft, religion, ritual and myth)

How rad would that be?