Both summer courses are now finished. I managed a B in Physics 2, and am looking to finish in about the same place in Calculus 3. This is the last summer term I’ll ever take; none of the courses I need from here until graduation are offered in the summer. Taking these two courses during overlapping summer terms was brutal. I spent basically all of my time from June to August sitting in this very chair. I wasn’t sitting here because I wanted to either. Three entire notebooks, in my microscopic handwriting, were filled with line-integrals, gradients, and sketches to make problems visual so I could see what was going on. Sometimes I would stand up at my desk, because I’d been sitting for far too long. A few times I went and took a walk just to remember what the sun looked like. Of course the fact it’s summer in Texas quickly reminded me that in addition to being really bright the sun is also really hot.

With this semester out of the way, I am looking at six more full-time semesters until I graduate with a BSME. If you’d asked me when I graduated high school in 2001 if I thought I would still be working on an undergraduate degree in 2010 I would have laughed at you. Here I am looking at a 2013 graduation. Sure, I changed my major four or five times and spent five years on active duty in the Army – but I still never imagined it’d take this long. If the world ends in 2012, I’m going to be pissed.

Update: Managed a B in Calculus 3 as well. Yee + Haw.