Girl + Computer = ?

My calculus II summer session class is completely over. I was awarded with a C, which I am totally alright with. I had previously gotten a D, so finally passing Calc II the semester before I take three courses with Calc II as a prerequisite is a huge relief.

However, I now feel about ten times as burnt out as I did at the end of the spring semester in May. Spring semester was pretty rough for me, and when those 16 weeks were finally over I was really ready to transition out of the Left-Brain Programmer-Girl mode and into Right-Brain Arty-Person.
I wanted to redecorate my living space. I wanted to start doing wheatpastes. I wanted to take voice lessons again.

Instead, I had to jump right back into school. 

It can be really hard to balance academic life with regular life, especially with something as competitive and challenging as computer science. Being a student is a full-time job that can demand all of your time, effort, and soul, and I’m not sure how much that is recognized in the “real world”.

I’m not saying that being a college student is the hardest part of a person’s life - not even slightly. College is a challenging time where you find out about yourself, your interests, and your limits. Completing a bachelor’s degree can be an intense experience. It seems that our society simply recognizes the mint college diploma we have and shuffles us forward to the job-world when often times we have been transformed into completely different people than we were when began our journey. The life-altering and sometimes traumatic experiences we might have had are just chalked up to “the college life” when in fact we may need to sit down and process the last few years of our lives.

So no, I do not look very forward to the fall semester starting just yet. I have a little more recovery to do, and I wonder if I’m really the only person admitting it.