Balance

Before starting another semester on Monday (🤦🏾‍♀️I know... I signed up for it), I just wanted to take a moment to share the short version of a semester that taught me a lifelong lesson.
 
During the fall of my junior year, I took 17 credits. It was the most stressful semester ever, and not because of the number of credits. It was a stressful semester because of the classes I decided to take all at the same time: Egypt/Mesopotamia Art (not bad), Biochemistry I (🙈), Quantitative Analysis (an advanced Chemistry course 🙉), Physics (🙊) and Statistics. Those last four are not evil by themselves, but the combination was too much for me.
 
In twelve weeks, I lost 40 lbs, and it was not because I took up swimming 🏊🏾‍♀️with a friend in the morning. I was sick. Not only was I sick, but I was also failing three out of those last four classes and not doing so well in the fourth. The information just was not sticking. I felt like Sampson with a haircut. I got up, shook myself, and my strength was gone. It was bad.
 
So, what did I do? I went home, visited the doctor, and withdrew from my classes. Thankfully, I completed enough of the semester so that I did not have to pay back my scholarship and financial aid.
 
In the spring, I returned to school and had the best semester, academically speaking, of my undergraduate career. I took Vertebrate Physiology, Mechanism of Infectious Disease (between this class and Microbiology, I am an official germaphobe), Power of the Nucleus, and Music.
 
To make up my lost semester, I took Drawing I & II, Painting, and Photography at Prince George's Community College over the summer. And, as I hope you can see from my images, I am a better artist as a result of these classes. I also switched my minor from Chemistry to Art. Hey...I needed to graduate on time because my partial (not full) scholarship came with a timeline, four years. 
 
When I went back to Hood College for my senior year, that fall, I retook Quantitative Analysis and Physics with Advanced Ecology, Yoga 🧘🏾‍♀️ (is not for the weak) and Spanish 1. 🤫 I already had 4.5 years of Spanish before college 🤭, but that was four years earlier. With this combination of classes, I did much better in Quant and Physics. 
 
As a Biology teacher, I had to teach a unit in Biochemistry. When my students and I explored this unit, we had a few labs. As a result of teaching myself as I prepared for my students, I have a much better hold on this subject matter. For some reason, Biochemistry did not have a lab in undergrad. At least the version taught by the Biology Department did not have a lab.
 
On the other hand, the Chemistry Department had a lab with the first section of Biochemistry. Perhaps that might have been a part of the missing link in my previous learning of the topic 🤔...anyway.
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Later on, while working on my Master of Public Policy degree, I took up three successive Statistics courses for research purposes and did very well. Since I worked full-time and went to school, I heeded the caution set by the fall of my junior year and only took two classes a semester.
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Slow and steady wins the race. - Aesop
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The point of this story is to share how I learned what combinations of courses work well for me, as an individual. In college, you are free to arrange classes however you want, as long as they count towards graduation. However, the wise thing to do is to know how you learn, and the circumstances that optimize your learning processes. For me, I can take challenging classes, but I do even better when I have some classes that challenge me in different ways. In other words, I've learned that I need to insert counterweights (see July 14th post) into my schedule to create balance.
 
I hope that this story helps someone.