Spring is a time for reflection: One student's thoughts

Erin McQuinn

Playing with Words

Spring is almost here. Not spring weather, Spring term that is. We're living in Michigan, who knows when the hell spring will finally come around. I must admit though, I'm getting a little perturbed/disoriented with the changing weather pattern.

I know it's not just me either, because without fail, every time after there's a warm period followed by a frigid day, there will be the one girl in sandals - or the one guy walking quickly to class in a T-shirt. Everyone stares at them because everyone knows that this person slept with their window closed and failed to turn on the weather channel.

It's not like in high school either where you could wear whatever you wanted under your coat because you were inside all day. No, every morning in college you have to dress in layers for the polar expedition that you must endure before entering the "random temperature" building. And it is too much of a hassle to keep on switching between heat and AC, so the University sets a date where they will permanently switch over. So even those few days when it was unseasonably hot out, the heat was on - making Chem 1800 a sauna. And now, no matter how cold - the AC will stay on - turning Angell Hall into a meat freezer.

But I'm still looking forward to Spring term. I just feel bad for all of those people who are still trying to sublet their apartment/house putting up those little signs with the phone numbers you can tear off at the bottom. I wonder if they check their signs to see how many numbers have been dispersed. Does anyone really tear off the numbers? I always see the signs with a couple slips torn off, but I have yet to see someone in the act of doing it. Maybe the leasers pre-tear a couple of the numbers off to make the apartment look really good. That would be clever.

CRISPing is the only thing that has me worried about Spring term. I, unlike the really smart kids, did not come in with 15 A.P. credits - so therefore I always seem to get the absolute last time for CRISPing. I'm not even going to try to get into Psych 111 - I made that mistake last time. I built my schedule around this one class, and when it was full, I had to completely re-work my whole carefully orchestrated timetable. It was a mad fit of dialing various numbers - I ended up with some random University course and a whole lot of social science credits.

And why is it that the classes that sound so easy never are? The description sounds good - you can even go so far as to see what books are required at the bookstore. But then, on the first day of class the prof. just casually mentions the coursepack. Then when you go to pick it up at Accucopy or wherever and they slap down this three holed-plastic wrapped - oh did they leave out the fact that it was 400 pages too - composite of dead trees. And then you're totally screwed because no one is going to believe that Buddhist Studies is actually really hard. And what do you do with the un-returnable coursepack? It's $50 for a collection of essays from people that you've never even heard of talking about stuff you could care less about. What are you supposed to do after the class? At least if you have books, there's the possibility of referencing them later. Even if you don't sell them back or ever use them again, they'll make you look smart chillin' on the bookshelf. And if they have a decent cover, they could even go on the coffee table. But there's no such usefulness about a coursepack. It's not like you're ever going to sit down again and re-read it just for kicks. It's not even a complete work - just some random topics off the top of someone's head ... Coursepacks are like a giant trick to get you to take a class.

But Spring term makes all the CRISPing madness and coursepacks worthwhile. It is an example of what Fall and Winter term should be - only taking four credits and an awful lot of parties during the week. It's only two extra months - and most of those stupid people who always click "reply to all" on mass e-mail messages have gone home to annoy their parents.

-Erin McQuinn can be reached

via e-mail at emcquinn@umich.edu.