The next four months.

The Spring 2010 semester at MTSU starts on Thursday.

Naturally, I have been giving much time and attention to the approaching day, and what I need to do to be prepared. My brother and I went to the campus bookstore yesterday to see what books we each need for our classes, and the prices they had listed for all of them. I've also spent quite a bit of time online the past couple of days gathering information, and just generally trying to think of any and every thing I need to do before classes start.

Doing this has inspired me to give thought to what each of my classes might be like. Some of them look to be interesting. Like Children's Literature. And Survey of Popular Culture. I'm looking forward to some of the books I'm going to have to read for those classes. Roald Dahl and Barbie, anyone? That initial thought has naturally led to thoughts about the semester in general, and hopes I have for the coming four or so months.

I'd like to think I'll be more on top of my homework. This is my sixth semester, so you would think I'd have learned something to better help me accomplish that by now. I am taking less hours than I have the past two semesters, so that might help. But maybe not. I'm taking 16 hours rather than 17, so that's not much less, and more than that, my schedule is never that straightforward. For the past two semesters, I had 17 credit hours, but I was actually in class 19 hours a week. This semester, my 16 credit hours translate in reality to 18 hours spent in class every week. They say that for every hour you spend in class, you should spend at least two hours outside of class for homework and studying. For argument's sake, let's say I do that. So that's 18 + 36. Add to that extra time that it takes for writing papers (which I do a lot of), and the total comes to.....more than I want to calculate. Hmm...when the numbers are put in front of me like that, it's no wonder that I struggle to have a life when school is in session.

Also, almost all of my classes are upper-division or notoriously difficult this time around. I only have one gen ed class left to take, and I'm not taking it this semester. So I'm not going to have easy classes to fall back on as a break between the more difficult ones. Additionally, three of those upper-division classes are in the English department. Understandable since that's what I'm studying. But I've never had so many at once. What this means is that when I don't have my face stuck in a book, I'm probably going to be writing. That's what English majors do.

Despite all this, I don't plan on my life slowing down otherwise. I'm still as dedicated as ever to going to see downhere and Jason Gray as much as I can. They're both playing within driving distance in the near future, so that's at least two road trips I can plan on. In March, a friend of mine that lives in Wisconsin is coming for a weekend visit. And this month, Chuck and American Idol, the only two shows currently running on TV that I sincerely care about, are returning for this season, enticing me to watch them. And who knows what else I'll end up doing between now and the beginning of May. Not to mention the day in, day out things of life.

And I still haven't figured out how to get enough sleep and fit it in most effectively.

So maybe I won't be on top of my homework any more this semester than in the past.

The challenge has been placed before me. Let's see what I do with it.

One thing I can do is pray. You'd think that'd be the first thing I'd think of, but it's not. I still have a long way to go.