Thursday, January 13, 2005
Small Miracles
With some of the (over) emotional stuff I've been dealing with recently, I almost forgot that I wanted to talk about some of what I consider the "minor miracles" in my life--specifically school life. I just thought of it because I got an email from Alan today asking about my school schedule which he ended with "hope you're doing better" or something, and I took that to be referring to my school situation.
Anyway, before Christmas I was totally dying. The entire semester I struggled with a lack of motivation for school work and I really wasn't trying very hard in terms of getting my readings and assignments done, and done well. So in the last week (two days) of class, I ended up having to hand in a term paper in Chaucer, writing term tests in Native North American Lit., Chaucer, and China Since 1800, plus a regular in-class test in 18th c. Lit. With the exceptions of 18th c. and Native N, American Lit, I finished the week feeling like I had flunked or really blown everything.
Considering that my Chaucer paper ended up only 4 pages long when it was supposed to be 6-8 pages, and the fact that out of 40 marks on the term test, I was guaranteed to lost 8 marks because I simply didn't know the answers, I was pretty sure I was barely passing Chaucer. Then last Friday we got our papers and tests back, and I actually got B's on both!! You know, most people would probably just chalk it up to my not being able to judge, i.e. underestimating my own work, but everytime I think I've screwed up royally on my school work and it turns out that I did okay, it sure feels like a "minor miracle" to me.
With the paper especially, I guess I'm mostly thankful that God's given me the ability to write well. I mean, in terms of content, there really wasn't anything to my paper, but I guess my style carried me through. So yeah, these happy surprises with my marks always remind me how much God has blessed me.
With some of the (over) emotional stuff I've been dealing with recently, I almost forgot that I wanted to talk about some of what I consider the "minor miracles" in my life--specifically school life. I just thought of it because I got an email from Alan today asking about my school schedule which he ended with "hope you're doing better" or something, and I took that to be referring to my school situation.
Anyway, before Christmas I was totally dying. The entire semester I struggled with a lack of motivation for school work and I really wasn't trying very hard in terms of getting my readings and assignments done, and done well. So in the last week (two days) of class, I ended up having to hand in a term paper in Chaucer, writing term tests in Native North American Lit., Chaucer, and China Since 1800, plus a regular in-class test in 18th c. Lit. With the exceptions of 18th c. and Native N, American Lit, I finished the week feeling like I had flunked or really blown everything.
Considering that my Chaucer paper ended up only 4 pages long when it was supposed to be 6-8 pages, and the fact that out of 40 marks on the term test, I was guaranteed to lost 8 marks because I simply didn't know the answers, I was pretty sure I was barely passing Chaucer. Then last Friday we got our papers and tests back, and I actually got B's on both!! You know, most people would probably just chalk it up to my not being able to judge, i.e. underestimating my own work, but everytime I think I've screwed up royally on my school work and it turns out that I did okay, it sure feels like a "minor miracle" to me.
With the paper especially, I guess I'm mostly thankful that God's given me the ability to write well. I mean, in terms of content, there really wasn't anything to my paper, but I guess my style carried me through. So yeah, these happy surprises with my marks always remind me how much God has blessed me.
