Casa De Morrill

Everyone has one. It’s that point where you just can’t take anymore. The stress reaches a maximum capacity and the workload becomes more than what can be completed in a 24 hour day (sorry, kids, that’s all we get). Some people’s thresholds are higher than others. I consider mine to be pretty high. I mean, I’m a first-year senior in computer engineering at a pretty decent engineering school. I work 30 hours a week and I do my best to maintain a relationship with my fiance. In the words of my advisor Dr. Gaede, “How the heck do you pull that off?!” I don’t know. So far this term, it’s been by just putting out fires as I go. Whatever is due next is what I work on. Rarely do I get the chance to start working on something early.

Well, I’m about to reach that threshold. The first three weeks of this term were easy. My teachers didn’t assign hardly anything to work on. I went to class and then I had the ability to go home and spend time with my two kitties and Sean. Then, midterms hit and all of a sudden my teachers realized that they had grades in the syllabus that they had to make sure we completed. So, instead of spreading the workload out over a period of time, everything has been crammed into the last half of the term. This is true in all of my classes except for History. Blissfully, the only thing I have due in history is my term paper, which it is my plan to work on over Spring Break in the hopes of *gasp* getting it done before it’s due. Now, though, I come to find out that my Microcomputers teacher will be assigning us homework this week that is due the first class after Spring Break. WTF? Do teachers forget that there is a purpose to Spring Break? That it’s there to give the students a break? I mean, heaven forbid that we don’t have something to do 24 hours a day of our lives. I like to sleep and socialize with my friends. I want to be in Arkansas for Amy right now, but my teachers wouldn’t understand that need to be there for one of my good friends. Instead, I’m stuck here going to classes, afraid to skip a class, because the second I don’t attend, the teacher goes over something important. (this has proven true in the two classes I skipped last week)

Here is my plea to teachers. Guys, we appreciate the fact that you want us to learn. I accept the responsibility of doing the amount of work it takes for me to learn. But, you are not the only class I’m taking. There’s a good chance that almost every student in your class is taking at least another 10-15 hours more of classes. That’s more teachers that have the same belief that you do, that we don’t get a shred of work in our other classes so you have the freedom to give us tons. If I accept the responsibility of doing the work, then I would appreciate you accepting the responsibility of teaching the material spread out through the class, rather than cramming the whole term into half a term. Also, please spread out the workload so that we’re not killing ourselves just to get all of our work done. My boss doesn’t appreciate it when I fall asleep at my desk because I’m too tired from working the night before. Thanks.