September 5, 2002 - School
I have been taking classes at the Community College of Aurora for 2 weeks now. :) Here's the answers to questions everybody asks:

What is your major?
The classes I'm interested in taking all fall under the category of Political Science, so that's the short answer to this question. CCA doesn't have a Political Science major, so I'm technically in the Associate of Arts program there, and then in theory I will transfer to a 4-year college that does offer a Political Science major.

Why are you going back to school after all this time?
If you knew me way back when, you know that I have a horrible school history. I've always been one of those people who get bored with school quickly, and college was no different. I would begin going to classes with noble intentions of learning, completing the class, and getting good grades. But with almost every class, halfway through the semester I would find that we were reviewing stuff that I already knew, and I would become bored and stop attending. Even then, I would plan to keep going, but I would always talk myself out of making the effort, until it was too late to even pass the class. This happened over and over again, until I was completely convinced that school was just not what Blake needed.

So here we are 10 years later. Is Blake dumber? Is school better? No to both. Suddenly, I have become interested in a completely new area of study. Until last year, I had no interest in history or geography aside from the same fleeting "that was a cool war" interest that everybody has. If you had suggested I take those classes even 2 years ago, I would have groaned at you. But now I am suddenly interested in the world as a whole. I want to know the history of the entire world (although I seem hooked on the Israeli situation in particular right now). I want to learn everything about every country in the world. I want to know about all the religions in the world. I want to be all-knowing.

I began reading... and reading... and reading... and suddenly it occured to me that I was studying, and I decided to make a go at school again. There are 2 major differences to my school involvement now; 1st, I'm going because I want to instead of because everyone says I should go, and I'm taking subjects I'm really interested in instead of English and Art Appreciation and Cobol. Motivation and interest is a necessity for college, in my opinion. 2nd, I am taking classes that I have never taken before, so I am actually LEARNING instead of just sitting through stuff. When I sit in class, I'm not falling asleep, because I'm really trying to understand and make connections. When I read for homework, I'm reading the type of books that I have been reading for a few months on my own. I'm really looking forward to the presentations we have to do at the end of the semester, and I think this interest indicates that I'll actually MAKE IT to the end this time!

Woohoo!

What do you expect to do when you have a Political Science degree?
This is kind of the big question-mark. I think there are lots of things I could possibly do once I have learned this stuff; journalism, politics, teaching. When I started getting into the Palestinian issue, I started dreaming of doing the mediation that Anthony Zinni, Jesse Jackson, and Colin Powell have done. Turns out they all were acting as "U.S. Envoys", so I guess that would be my very long-term goal. I think a short-term goal would be to get into local politics. I spent a few days scoping out the special joint session of the Colorado Senate and House committees, and although I was surprised by how things were done, I was still quite interested in the whole process.

What classes are you taking this semester?
I have 3 classes;
- Intro to Political Science, which covers the history of politics and political ideologies.
- Western Civilization I, basically "ancient history"
- World Regional Geography, basically "geography". The "regional" part just means that we'll focus on particular areas at a time (like Europe for example)

What do you think of the new classes so far?
There are good things and bad things so far, as with any major undertaking. The most interesting class so far has been Western Civilization. The teacher really seems to enjoy what she does, and although it's hard to find real connections between ancient Myceneans and current events, it still is very interesting to me (who knows why! ;) ). The teacher keeps pointing out where famous historians probably came to incorrect conclusions, so that makes me wonder how you can have a test when all the answers are "No one knows". Hehehe. But that keeps it interesting. This class is also much larger than the other 2, so there's more interaction...and it doesn't hurt that there's a higher proportion of attractive young ladies in that class either. }:)

The Political Science class started off a little bumpy; the teacher missed the first class, and he has a heavy Japanese accent and seems to talk in outlines, and there is a LOT of reading assigned. But the reading turned out to be very interesting, so it wasn't so bad, and this information is much easier to fit together with current events and issues. A lot of politics is based on your point of view, so it's kind of a philosophical issue, and those have always interested me. :) Now I'm starting to get into the questions he poses in class, so I think it will turn out well.

I've only had one geography class so far, and we covered the whole world in very general terms. "Where is it hotter?" "Where are there the most people?" Stuff like that. I think this week we start focusing on a region, and that should be a little easier to grasp onto.


All in all, I'm pretty excited about this, and I think I'll gain a lot more from it this time. I'm rather stunned that I've come to this point in my life. I never thought I would see the value of school for me. Others, sure, but not me. As I continue, I'm sure I'll have some bumpy times - I still have to complete that treacherous English Composition class - but with the other classes being new and interesting, I think I'll be able to get past those. I'll also be taking some classes that interest me but don't really have anything to do with my major, like a computer class or two. I'm thinking I may go for a minor in Computer Information Systems (or however it works). Not sure about that yet. Right now the most important thing to me is that I take advantage of this new motivation I've found, so I don't want to torpedo myself by taking lousy classes here at the beginning. We'll see how things progress. :)