furman, gamecocks, type-A's...

Three days into school, and I'm already disillusioned by Furman.

Part of the problem is the Furman Freshmen. They are their own breed... very "Type A," very ridiculous... they prepare to much for the second day of class and gloat as they make the seniors look bad.

In my four years at FU, I've learned that the key to Not Going Insane is consistency. Furman mania gets you nowhere -- if you try to impress professors at the beginning of the term, they laugh at you as you struggle to maintain your perfect demeanor later in the term. Slow and steady, slow and steady.

My classes are going to be hard but good this term. Lots of reading, lots of projects... and I'm taking statistics with a professor who actually calls you out a lot (which makes me nervous). She's super nice when you get the answer wrong, but the Type A's snicker a bit. Slightly annoying classmates. We'll see.

I like school, though. The nerdy part of me could read articles and write papers all day long. And Brewer is fantastic.. he's been teaching for 51 years, he writes the GRE and AP Psych exams.. awards are named after him. This is my fourth class with him since my first day at Furman, and he still tells the same first-day-of-school jokes. He still tells students he has been teaching at Furman since it opened, he still calls out into the hallway "DOES ANYONE ELSE WANT TO LEARN ANYTING TODAY?", and he still hands out the syllabus and outlines brimming with famous, life changing quotes in the margins.

He's inspiring.

My anthropology class should be really interesting, too... it's entitled Anthropology of Religion, and the professor seems to be one of those super intellectuals with a lot of ego. He snickered at numerous religions throughout the introduction to the course, then he asked us all what we practice. Quite a bold move in a Furman classroom...

The class started talking about how to define religion.. whether it could exist apart from a belief in a relationship between the supernatural and the natural, whether its based on common beliefs or common practices... I realized how much I love those mind-stretching debates. High school theology classes were all very Catholic, and it's great to be able to place my beliefs against and alongside agnostics, Greek Orthodox, atheists, Russian Catholics, evangelicals, nondenominational (which I still believe to be a denomination), protestants... it's fun.

.. although reading hundreds of pages before Thursday may not be :)

So hooray for Friday. Cory and I just went out for Mexican beverages with some teacher friends, and we're resting up before Chiefs and a dorky study night later. Yay, Grad school applications.

Weekends are wonderful.