One Semester Down; Fifteen(ish) More to Go

Today marks my final day of class work in CWI. Not only did I finish my final exams, but I'll also be transferring to a new college come this or next semester. It's been quite an interesting journey, and while I personally believe that much of it was a bit of a waste, I'm happy to have pushed myself toward something greater, and to have put in as much effort as I did.

My First Semester in a Decade

Yeah—this was the first semester that I've attended college in just over a decade. The last college classes I took were from Daytona State College and consisted of English 101, Anatomy and Physiology, and some math subject that I vaguely remember. This semester, I took English 102, Communications 101, and some required entry level class called Pathways - Connecting with Ideas, or CWI 101. It was certainly a different experience this time around.

As a 90's kid, technology wasn't all that impressive during my original high school and college days. We were excited over the release of the iPhone 5 and Nintendo's Wii U, rather primitive by current standards. Needless to say, many of the tools and technologies that schools used back then were not nearly as robust and efficient as tools used today. To my great surprise, all three of my classes focused a great deal on artificial intelligence. As much as I love AI, I almost became sick of it as a result of how much we focused on ethics, citation, and accreditation. I guess it didn't help that I wrote a paper on AI and used AI as an example in at least three different writing prompts across my classes.

Perhaps what surprised me the most was the leniency of all of my professors over the use of AI for classwork and research. I was astounded, especially upon finding out that I was allowed to use AI for many of my assignments, so long as I specified that I did so. My grade would not be impacted by this, and it felt more like a cheat than anything else, so I used it as sparingly as possible—primarily for verifying that I didn't miss any typos or grammatical errors, with the occasional recommendation for clearer phrasing.

English

The course that I paid the most attention to was English. While I understand that it was just as important as the other two classes in the long run, I was far less interested in speeches and college introductions. Ironically, I hate writing, yet I found myself exhilarated and inspired each time I worked on an essay. I felt like I was able to use a part of myself that I'm not able to express often—writing stories and controlling the flow. You could say that coding and software development are perfect ways to exercise this, but with my novice skills, I don't yet feel as free when I program as I do when I'm creatively writing.

By the time the semester ended, I felt completely confident in my ability to research, analyze, cite, and source my information. I was writing 2500+ word papers based on dedicated research in as little as six hours and earning nothing short of an A on each. I completely understand that this strategy will undoubtedly fail upon reaching graduate level courses, or perhaps even Bachelor level courses, and so I will give my best efforts to pivot away from this poor habit. I work well under stress and limited time, often producing quality work, but I'm aware that this will one day become impossible to maintain.

In the end, my final grade was a 95.

Communications

I was not excited for this class. I loathed it, in fact. I'm the very essence of an introvert, scoring a zero on extraversion, hosted by The Big Five. I have a hard enough time approaching a single individual to start a conversation, let along speaking to an audience. Heck, even sending a work message to an unfamiliar colleague can be a bit intimidating. Even still, I knew what I had to do. And so I did.

When it came to delivering my final speech, it came at the precipice of layoffs, and so I nearly dropped out of class to put as much time into job hunting and skill building as possible. I even emailed my professor to explain the situation and my desire to discontinue the my attendance, but he had managed to convince me to give it my very best effort, citing my high grade and likelihood of passing even with partial credit. I took a single night to record my speech, having not even created my outline by that point. Again, my ability to work fast and efficiently under pressure paid off. After close to what felt like 50 takes, I delivered my speech from by memorizing each line, practicing proper speech etiquette such as the speakers triangle, hand gesturing, dramatic pauses, etc. Lo and behold! my final grade was 140/150 points, having only lost credit due to my camera being unable to effectively pick up my visual supports on my tv.

My final grade in communications was an 88 - with most of my lost points being due to either forgetting to, or intentionally not turning in minor assignments. I chose to make the decision to forego some essays for the sake of my mental sanity, and I'm glad I did in the end.

Connecting With Ideas

CWI was an odd class. Being in my early 30's and already being at least somewhat established in my career, I felt like this class really didn't offer me much. It felt overwhelming intended toward fresh high school graduates, attempting to teach basic concepts like how to find a career, build a resume, take personality and skill tests to determine best matches, etc. Don't get me wrong—there were some good ideas that were covered on topics of memory and mnemonics, and philosophy, and it was genuinely refreshing to explore some philosophical topics, one of my favorite pastime activities.

There were few major assignments to speak of in this class, and the final exam was almost more entertaining than challenging, especially considering the professor game express permission to utilize any tool for assistance. It was open book, non-time limited, savable multiple choice exam with some true and false mixed in. Naturally, I decided to use AI for some of the questions just to see if AI was capable of answering some of the more convoluted questions such as "how many tutoring centers exist at CWI". The professor even left a comment on one of the questions explicitly stating that we should "choose this answer".

Finally, my last grade of the semester - a resounding 100.09%. Somewhere along the way, I picked up extra credit and didn't even notice.

A Temporary Hiatus

As much as I want to ride the train of success and inspiration, I must reign in my efforts due to financial concerns. I won't be able to attend classes in spring semester of 2025, not unless I take out a student loan, and with classes starting in less than a month, that's looking unlikely. I waited too long deciding what my next step should be, considering the state of my job and my job security. Even still, I look forward to my next classes. I'm getting closer to my degree, and hopefully closer to a job in software development.

At least this will give me more time and opportunities to focus on building my skills—primarily Python, but mixing in others here and there.