I’m taking four classes this semester: two web design, and two computer systems classes. The web design classes are easy and I’m flying through the material; but in contrast, the two computer systems classes are actually challenging me with new information, so I have to pay attention, study, and study some more.

I’m embarrassed to admit that studying is hard for me, because I never learned how to. I was always in gifted classes and still buzzed right through all of my subjects. This, in contrast, is not nearly as easy. It has been two lessons: humility and learning how to study in order to learn.

I didn’t mean to go a month without blogging, but that’s how involved I’ve been with these two harder classes!

One of my classes, CIS 222, is all about learning Windows Server 2019. Prior to this class, how much did I know about Windows Server 2019? This much:

Still, I’m determined to learn, and learn as quickly and thoroughly as possible. I’m a week in, and most of my notes are a mess of headlines and screenshots that look like this:

I’m proud to say I’m three chapters in, I still don’t know shit about fuck, but I’m making progress!

I am a terrible student in that I do not know how to study. Learning always came easily to me, and I was always in honors-level classes, and even then, learning came easily. I never had to study. I just…readily absorbed.

Fast forward to now: I’m tackling subjects that aren’t rocket science, by any stretch of the imagination. But they are new. And so they require studying in order for me to retain and grasp the material. And since I never had to study, I never learned how to study, and so I’m terrible at studying.

I’ve got a system that is working well, so far, but I’m open to advice. What I’m doing is not only reading assigned material, but re-writing it in OneNote, re-reading those notes, and then reviewing the material in both optional and mandatory assignments…twice. I’ll do it once with notes, and then the second time without notes.

It sucks to be struggling, to be perfectly honest with you. I mean, don’t get me wrong, my grades are great (4.0 GPA last semester, and I hope for the same this semester; my goal is a 95% or better in each class), but it sucks to have to actually work at it. It’s…foreign.

HACC’s fall semester started on August 29th, 2022. If it weren’t for recovering from the effects of COVID, I would have been all over that. But alas, I was, and so I wasn’t. But I was still excited. So excited, in fact, and well enough that I completely finished a class less than 24 hours after it launched a few days before the official start of the semester. Yes, you read that right. But in my teacher’s defense, it was a beginner’s class on the internet and web design. The final project was to put together a 6-page portfolio using HTML skills learned in the class. Um, have you seen what I can do with CSS? I think I can handle some basic HTML.

Amusingly, I’m actually not 100% finished. I need to grab some screen-recording software and do a presentation of the actual portfolio. This is the part I’m dreading, because I hate talking to an audience (this is why I’m not a vlogger, and why you’ll rarely find me doing videos on Instagram). But still, finishing a 16 week class in about 16 hours (while sick with COVID and a fever, mind you, and starting in the middle of the night) will hopefully show my advisor (who is the teacher of that class) I do in fact know what I’m talking about, and so pretty please listen to me next time when I ask for more advanced classes, because this one? Yawn. Still, easiest 100% ever!

This leaves 16 weeks for three classes instead of four, and one of the three is another beginner-level HTML class. My first homework assignment instructed me to use a total of five elements of HTML and/or CSS to construct a one-paragraph biography of myself. I ended up throwing in an inline stylesheet and validating it along with the HTML, and I styled the hideous horizontal line the teacher insisted we include, for good measure. I’d have finished this class, too, except this teacher is releasing the class work week by week, instead of all at once, so I have to sit and twiddle my thumbs.

My other two classes will be a bit more stimulating: Windows Server and desktop administration. I’m excited for both!