So, I’m gonna take everyone’s advice and just focus on one semester at a time. This semester, I’ll be finishing up my prerequisite courses in human/social sciences and taking on a couple of elective courses. Most notably, I’m gonna grab PreCalc by the horns, which (according to several people I’ve talked to) is harder than Calculus One, but is a little less jam-packed than College Algebra. If someone told me just last year that I’d be taking on PreCalc in less than 365 days, I would’ve called total bullshit. Yet, here I am. And, I don’t feel nearly as under-confident about my ability to deal with college-level math as I once did. 

Indeed, I’m starting to fully realize my ability to not only survive, but thrive in higher level math and science. College Algebra was far less painful for me than Literature was. Not because College Algebra was easy and Literature was not (quite the opposite, actually). But, because I just couldn’t stomach analyzing literature (even nonfiction literature) for the life of me. 

Meanwhile, College Algebra was challenging, but I wasn’t too frustrated by it. I could sit down a couple hours a day and grind through it just fine. What frustrated me the most in College Algebra was how I struggled to learn it from others. Going to tutoring or office hours didn’t really do much (if anything) for me. However, when I worked on it alone at home, usually while listening to instrumental music, I always got an “ah-ha!” moment within fifteen or twenty minutes per topic. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, it’s just something I observed while going through College Algebra (and through Astronomy, to an extent). 

I have a feeling the same will happen to me in PreCalc. I’m not sure I’ll exactly be awake at 8:00 in the morning to absorb two-and-a-half hours worth in material per day. But, I do know that so long as I put my mind to it, and take decent care of myself, I can figure out PreCalc enough to, at the very least, pass the class. C’s get degrees, after all!

However, I hope that by throwing over $100 bucks of my own money at a TI-84 calculator, I'll be much more likely to get a better-than-average grade. Not because I care about the letters on my transcript (frankly, I don't), but because I care about understanding PreCalc. 

too be continued... as I find better words to say what I'm trying to say...