It is 10:53pm and I am still awake...

I realize that many people are still awake at this hour, just usually not me. I am a 10pm to bed girl. But, there are nights when I like to wander around blogs and websites and the news and find out what's going on. In approximately 4.5 weeks, I will cease to be a student. As in I will not go to class, I will have a job, and I will get paid for that job. Ah, I cannot wait. Although, I will be leaving behind one of my greatest gifts: manipulating the classroom. That may sound strange, but school, grad school especially, has felt simply like a maze of tests, papers, and projects. There haven't been many classes that were truly exciting or challenging. I absorb the information needed to pass the class, spit out what the teacher wants to know that I know, and receive my A in return. It took me until college to realize that grades aren't really important. It's not actually proof that one is intelligent or even brillant. It just means that you can take information, rearrange it, and reproduce it. I took a biology class in college. Now, the sciences are not my strong point. I really had to study for biology and chemistry. The first test I scored a D. The second test I scored an F. An F, people! I had never gotten an F in my life. And I had studied hard for those tests! So, I looked at the teacher, looked at the material, and looked at the tests. I realized that I was over-studying and over-analyzing. So, I studied less, tried to think like the teacher, and walaa- I made an A in the class by the end of the semester. That was an interesting lesson. I had another professor in college that demanded excellence from us. She made us think, breathe, talk, dream in Spanish. She was good. By the time I got to upper level Spanish classes, I couldn't even get an A. And I really liked that. I had to work hard for my B. I had to earn it. I had to write Spanish, speak Spanish, learn Spanish. I've actually wished in grad school for the opportunity to have to earn an A. I'm not saying that it's been easy for me or I'm smarter than anyone else. I don't think it's that. I just think it's that I've been a student for 19 years now and unless the teacher really believes in the material and is inspired to make us think beyond tests and papers and actually desires to hear an opinion, even if it differs from her own (gasp!) and not be threatened, I'm gonna be bored. Same song, 19th verse.