I’ll be honest, all weekend I’ve been trying to decide whether to take a course that is directly relevant to the career path I am planning or this class, which would broaden my perspective, generally, on the environment field. Well, I’ve chosen to go with the perspective broadening path. There, now you all know one at least thing about me: I think way too much about decisions that affect my personal life.
Any interest I have in computers stems entirely from a Pascale programming course I took in high school. I was at the top of the class of 24 boys and me, as you can imagine this caused a bit of power trip for me and for those few months I thought I was a computer genius. Well, my computer expertise hasn’t gone much farther than that, so I’ll be pretty out of the loop when we talk about “meatspace”, chip technology and cybernetics, along with everything else!
As I mentioned in class, my degree is in Environmental Science (maj) and Atmospheric and Oceanic Science (min) (i.e. a lot of science, not much social science). I went into the Environment program after a year of gruelling preparation for a BSc in Dietetics (not for me). I switched when I realized that there were things to study at university that I actually loved – like the outdoors. I’ve been a camper, canoer and hiker for as long as I can remember; it’s my favourite “escape from the real world”.
Well that’s a bit about me. I won’t go on with anymore details because I’m sure we will all get to know each other quite well as the semester goes on. See you this afternoon.
I think you made a wise choice to take this course, Jen. Almost every profession today works with computers. You can always learn something from anything you do. As I said to Ira, our company replaces our computers every 2 or 3 years, selling the old ones to company employees for $100 each from a random draw. Great Recycling.
Hi Jen
It is not your decision to take the course which struck my interest but your comment about thinking about the future(too much). It sounds rather familiar. You are trying to make everything to do, in and out of school, be a step towards your future which will be relevant. That is ideal but sometimes we just need to do things for our own interest. If not, you can get a brain cramp and think way too much about matters creating stress when a correct answe/choice may not be poosible at this time.
Jane Jacobs has said that our universities resemble credential-making machines. To me, it’s always been about learning first. And this comes from the woman who wrote The Book on urban planning!