Kekka dake da! by Mimi S. '22

Hello. It’s everyone’s favorite angery boi…

KING CRIMSON!!

I don’t really know why I introduced my post like this, but this dude’s power (spoiler: he skips time) got me thinking about things that have occurred recently. Namely with my schedule. A few blog posts ago, I said I was taking the following schedule

• 18.100B (Real Analysis)
  
• 21M.301 (Harmony and Counterpoint I)
• 6.009 (Fundamentals of Programming)
• 8.02 (Physics II)

This schedule lasted less than a week. 21M.301 was overenrolled so I wanted to fill it in with a different class. “Ok”, I thought, “I’ll just add another math class. What’s the worst that could happen??”

Ha.

Ha.

Ha.

I took 18.06 (Linear Algebra) for about 2 weeks(?) before I had enough of the structure of the class and ditched it. That’s ok though. I was actually excited! I was initially going to write a post about “lightening the load” and how you can choose to overexert yourself but don’t have to! But even my 3 class schedule was crushing me. Namely 18.100B. I’ve never done proof-based math before, plus all of the open and closed sets just swirled around my head, confusing me greatly. I jumped ship from the more abstract 18.100B to the more concrete 18.100A, which has been surprisingly helpful. They’re both Real Analysis, but they just approach it from different viewpoints.

At this point, I was happy! 36 unit schedule of three fairly difficult classes! Perfect! I don’t need anything else!

I was happy for at least a moment. At this point, I started scrambling for another arts/humanties class to take. I emailed at least 3 different professors, getting a response from 1 (just to say the class was full :^) ) Naturally, I decided to complain about this to my friend (who was also dropping and adding classes late into the semester) who then informed me abou 9.00 (Introduction to Psychological Science). A few days before add date (the final day to add classes!) my final schedule was made!

• 18.100A (Real Analysis)
• 9.00 (Introduction to Psychological Science)
• 6.009
• 8.02

Only 2 classes from my original schedule made it, but it’s crazy how well this schedule actually works for me. The switch from 18.100A has been very helpful (I can actually do psets), and 9.00 is actually very interesting!

At first, I was reluctant to switch my schedule. Part of me felt like I was giving up. Like, I should be pushing myself even harder, but my original schedule would have been absolutely devastating to me.  This schedule isn’t easy, but it should be so much more doable! Still, I had that nagging feeling. My partner kept pushing me to drop some of my classes and almost didn’t want to believe them. I wanted to believe that I could tough it out. But, I couldn’t, and I feel so much better for it! I’m at MIT! I make video games for money! My community is amazing (stay tuned for a post about that in the next few weeks, btw)! I don’t need to crush myself or prove myself to anyone! And even if I wasn’t at MIT, I still wouldn’t have anything to prove to anyone.

To go back to the angeriest, reddest of bois KC, the reason I thought of him is because of his power (spoiler, for anyone who hasn’t seen/read Jojo part 5: everybody except for him does what they are fated to do, but they don’t remember doing it. Time essentially skips for them). It doesn’t really matter how you get there, the only thing that matters is the result. I went through a lot (seriously, A LOT) of stress to get here, but at the end of the day my final schedule is much, much better then my original one.

“But Mimi”, you think to yourself, “why not relate it to a conservative force? Or some other science-y, math-y topic?”

Don’t look at this >:(

grrrrrrrr…. I said don’t!!!

Why??? :(((((

Don’t ask ._.