I cannot tell a lie, this week has not been super interesting. It’s getting to that time in the semester when things have revved up enough that you never really have a moment when there isn’t school work you could be doing. Sometimes this can make you feel that even if you spend all day working, you will never really get ahead of your work load. While this isn’t a horrible thing to feel (you just get used to it after a while), it can make your week feel super monotonous and fly by at the same time. That is how I’m feeling right now, I don’t know where my week went! While it was pretty uneventful at first glace, I suppose a lot of things did happen.
First, as another step forward on the long path to doing research in higher education, I spend 3 hours completing the CITI training program. This is required for all individuals doing research involving human subjects. The modules give you a lengthy narrative of rules and procedures and things of note and then test you on them. There are five such modules and each is painstakingly tedious. I feel very much on my way toward academic professionalism.
Second, I was introduced and spent a few solid hours with a software program from Microsoft called Visio. In my ACTG 321 class, we are learning to flowchart the processes that occur within a business, the way auditors do when they come to a new company. Visio is super awesome and I’m stoked to be learning it, reading a manual of business procedures and then flowcharting the movement of documents through the systems is pretty hard. I’m hoping the learning curve will flatten out as I get more familiar with the program itself.
Third, I purposely neglected to attend an informational meeting about the national business honor society, Beta Gamma Sigma. My experience with the majority of honor societies in the past has been less than stimulating. The premise and goals always are engaging, but the actual participation isn’t anything special. Your lifetime membership fee of $75 usually gets you the privilege to go to meetings that are all the same and maybe participate in an event or club fair to inform other students why your society is so great. I know this sounds bitter, but if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that honors societies may look good on a resume but they really aren’t that fulfilling. If you are a smart, motivated student, there are much better things to do with your time then to join a static society full of other smart motivated students. Seriously.
Fourth, I watched My Sister’s Keeper, which made me cry for about an hour and then couldn’t go to sleep for another hour because I couldn’t stop tearing up about it. It’s a great film, but leave yourself some time after to let the swelling in your eyeballs go down.
Fourth, I woke up early Saturday morning and went to the Nova Cafe with my very good friend Emilie. We beat the morning crowds by about 20 minutes and had a wonderful time eating great breakfast food and talking. The Nova is the best!
Lastly, I spent today doing research for a research paper. I could not think of a topic for the longest time, but finally settled on the economic and social pros and cons surrounding the legalization of marijuana. Recreational usage and possession of cannabis was recently passed in my home state of Washington and I felt I needed to know a little bit more about the subject and the legal intricacies of the whole issue. Then to top off my day, I went a little crazy and made two batches of scones and drank tea in preparation for Downton Abbey tonight!
