When I was at BYU, I always liked finals week. Sure, I had exams to study for and projects to complete, but I also didn't have to attend class, which gave me more time.
I'm in finals week now, but it doesn't really feel special. It just feels like every other week.
For my proseminar in US History 1600–1877, I have to write a 12–15-page historiographical essay using three books. I opted to write about the mythology of the First Thanksgiving, since I'm passionate about the topic and I had already read two books about it. I'm almost done with the essay. When I quote a quote within a quote, it makes for some impressive punctuation.
For my borderlands class, we also have to write a 12–15-page historiographical essay, but we have to use several of the books and articles we read in class, as well as a few others. I was really worried about this one, because I'm not as immersed in the subject, and I didn't get a good grade on my first reading response for this class. But this week the professor told us that she will grade our writing so we know how to improve, but she will give us an A as long as we do it. Phew! What a relief! Now I'm just worried that I won't try hard on it, or that I will not take it seriously when I still very much have to take it seriously.
For my US West class, I had to write a research paper a few weeks ago, but I just have to revise it for the final project. It should be relatively simple.
The snow that we got on Thanksgiving is melting at a glacial pace (get it?), so I have been staying off the trails, which does not motivate me to do much running (well, that, and the temperature, and homework). It has been on my bucket list to go to all of North Salt Lake's official parks, and I hit them all a few years ago, but I just found an updated map. I was happy to see that it listed two paved trails that I have never been on, so I decided to go run on them.
On Thursday, I went on the Parkway Trail along Highway 89, which I had seen but never gone on. It was a fine trail with a DUP marker on it, but it seemed a little pointless. There was a sidewalk right next to it, and it's not fun running by a busy highway. End to end, it's less than a mile.
The next day, I went to the Redwood Road "Trail," which was even more pointless. It kept starting and stopping, too much for it to be useful as any kind of a trail. Some of the dead ends were at weed-filled vacant lots, where I presume they might develop the land at some point, but other dead ends were at landscaped lawns, so I don't know what the plan is there. Maybe in five years it will be complete? I don't know why they even bothered putting it on the map.
Today I had my first class teaching the youth Sunday School. But numerous weird happenings meant that the class was delayed by half an hour, so I only had two youths, and the other teacher couldn't make it. None of it was my fault, but I still bad about the situation. Oh well.
Once I'm done with my final projects this week, I am looking forward to lots of free time and Christmas festivities! I don't go back to school until January 19. I hate January. I don't know whether it's good to have that much time off then, because I'm not adding stressful school to an already bad month, or whether it's bad, because I won't have anything to distract me from the January terribleness.
I keep thinking, should I try to spend more time enjoying Christmastime right now in the moment, while school is still happening? I did enjoy Christmas when I was in college, though I only attended during two Christmas seasons. But the things I enjoyed then are no longer applicable, thanks both to COVID and my current life situation: seeing lights on campus, watching Christmas shows with roommates, attending YSA Christmas parties, buying eggnog from vending machines. Oh well. Santa's bringing us a vaccine, and next year can be merrier.
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