Summer at Community College

I finished my electricity and magnetism final exam an hour ago. The class is over. My summer at community college is over. What a mixed bundle of feelings I am.

My thoughts toward community college at the beginning were pretty negative. I viewed it as a lesser place...a place that served a purpose for certain people, but I was above that. I saw it less as a place of intellectual stimulation and more as a place to just take required classes. 

And yeah, at first my experiences aligned with my judgments. I saw my general chemistry professor as being strange for being a professional juggler. I saw him as annoying because of how slow he taught, and how easy the class was. I was irritated because he spent two lectures teaching us study skills. 

But the thing is, you see how smart people are in little ways. Like the way he always chose the best examples to expand upon the concepts. Or how he would give you more depth to a concept if you wanted it. I was curious, so I googled him, and suddenly I felt miserable for ever finding him annoying. This man's Ph.D. thesis was on problems found in teaching chemistry to students, and all of his doctoral work and journal articles and everything are literally about how to teach chemistry better. This guy got a Ph.D. to essentially make my life easier. The class was easy for me because he was so educated.

With that knowledge, my perspective of him, the class, and community college changed. Realizing how completely judgmental I had been, I applied myself more and made friends. And suddenly, I was happy. Happier than I've been in most classes at my university. I passed the class easily and began my physics class.

Physics was hard at first. Getting used to the professor always seems to be one of the biggest challenges in a class. He taught at the speed of light and with a thick accent. He could be intimidating. The concepts were significantly harder than chemistry. Not as difficult as linear algebra, but still. It wasn't easy adjusting to that.

The class was at night also, so it completely wrecked my sleep schedule, which I'll now attempt to remedy. And most days, I hated it. There was a ton of work due in a little amount of time. My lab partners could act like complete jerks if they felt like it. So did my professor a few times.

But toward the end of this class, we all got along better. And my professor gave me one of the most motivating compliments I've received in my life. He became kinder toward me, and I saw how much he really cared about us beyond just students. That's rare. I doubt I'll ever receive that from my college's professors. 

The community college faculty as a whole seemed so much more relaxed and connected than at my university. When I came to class early, the heads of the departments would be talking and laughing. The first time I saw this it kind of took me by surprise. After all, I come from a place where a professor will say something snarky to another for using a classroom for a little too long.

Also, this will be the only instance in which I'll take a class with people from other colleges. People from colleges I disliked and people from colleges I dreamed of getting into. It was interesting to realize how alike we all were in our capabilities. Some of them were very smart, and it felt like I was at my college again. It kind of made me realize more that where you go to school is really just a name...what matters is who you are and what you can do.

Another thing, it made me appreciate how fortunate I am to be able to attend a 4 year university from the very beginning of my education. Even though community college isn't bad, there are definitely more resources at my college that I take for granted. 

This summer taking classes at community college turned out much better than expected. It's strange. I had a feeling, while I disliked it, that I would miss it. As I did in gymnastics, as I did in linear algebra. I guess things you hate just get more beautiful as they come to a close. You begin to reflect more and put the pieces of your experience together. You see how everything "bad" about your experience had a purpose. 

Thanks, community college. It's been great. It really has.