SUNM Experience:
The teachers are settling into their comfort zones, and we’re finding our paces in each class. It’s a demanding schedule with lots of reading, quizzes in almost every class, and an intense amount of information coming at us for 3 hours straight each night.
I can’t imagine trying to do this without a knowledge base already, especially with the schedule I’m keeping. To be honest, I’m already way behind in reading!
Student Pulse:
There’s no doubt about it, the pace is challenging. By the last night of class this week, everyone was ready for a few days off.
The rhythm is setting in, slowly for some of us, but all of us are trying to do a lot in minimal time. All of us are working, some of us have families, and several of us are contending with big life stressors outside of class. We’re all asking a lot of ourselves, but we’re all still here. I look at the potential in the room, and I hope that doesn’t change over the next few years.
I’ve also discovered another challenge I have to confront over the next few years. Being an adult learner is way different than being a young one. I used to spend far less time getting information to stick. And then it stayed longer. Though I’ve learned that much of this is from a genetic metabolism disorder that affects my memory and nervous system, I don’t think all of it is. When my disorder kicks in, I feel spacey and can’t find words that I usually access all the time (not a good night to have an Anatomy quiz!). However, my older mind feels slower and less absorbent than it used to as a young student. Hopefully, this is just the challenge of exercising the brain in new ways. I’m holding out for the possibility that it will recover youth soon!
