Serenity

The sun shining, a gentle breeze floating in off the ocean. It's not too hot out, and either due to a quirk of nature or possibly because I actually remembered sunscreen, I don't have to worry about getting a sunburn. Or maybe because the sun is really close to setting and won't be around long enough for me to worry. Whichever, but probably the latter.

The waves are gently lapping up against the shore, wiping away any footprints that had been there. The water is a little cool, but still comfortable to wade in. At least the handful of seagulls around don't seem to mind it too horribly. There's a crab's shell that's washed ashore, but the crab apparently hasn't had much need of it for a while--the gulls find it somewhat amusing, however.

The soft sound of the water meeting the land is relaxing, and as the sun sets someone starts a bonfire. The moon is just a sliver, but the stars are sparkling, reflecting off the gently moving sea.

That is the perfect day in a nutshell. Or at least so I think when I have a ton of work on my plate. Of course, if I've no work at the moment, a hectic day at the office sometimes seems preferable.

That's Me! Over There!

I think it's time for me to reconsider my chosen field. Yes, I've already done years in school, but I wasn't thinking straight or something. Especially as my superpower makes my job harder instead of easier. I really think I need to start to look for a school that trains ninjas. My superpower would be much more useful then--it's so much easier to travel in the shadows when every light you pass blinks out.

There are so many reasons to be a ninja. The perks are great! Not only do you get to carry around fun swords, but you can wear really comfortable clothing. Black goes with pretty much anything. Except a necktie. When's the last ninja that you saw wearing a tie? And you get to work outside, get tons of exercise.

I think I would make a wonderful ninja, as one of the most important skills they have is the ability to go unnoticed. I've mastered the art of going around unnoticed. Being one of a handful of people that witnessed a robbery, I was the only person the police didn't question, I wasn't even included in the newspaper story, although everyone else in my group was mentioned.

So I think it's time for me to look into a career change. Don't worry that you won't see me again, it'll probably mean that I'm doing my job very well.

Then again, I may have done my job rather poorly.

Finals

Unlike many people, it would seem, I always thought that finals week was the best week of the entire semester. Sure, you often have less work to do the first week (although that's not true too many times), but you also have an entire semester of more and more work coming up.

Once you get to finals week, you're through with the entire class. You've got one more test to take, and there's no way you're cramming all of that information into your head in that little time, so if you didn't work on it all semester long (I didn't), it's too late to start then, so why bother?

You also know, come finals week, that in 7 or so days, you will be _done_, you'll never have to think about any of this stuff again, unless of course you're taking the next course in the sequence. Or need it in the "real world", but who really uses anything they learn in school in the real world?

Now the week /before/ finals week, that's always the painful one. Not only do 3/4 of the classes decide that projects are supposed to be due then, but 3/4 of the classes /also/ have a test that week. Of course, there was the semester that I /assumed/ my huge project was due the week before finals week, and was wrong. Thankfully it was actually due finals week, making my entire finals week just that much more enjoyable.

Once those final projects are in, once the next-to-last batch of tests are taken, finals really don't matter that much anymore. It's really not worth all the effort people put into worrying about doing well and making sure everything is known. So why bother?

However. Since so many people are so incredibly stressed out throughout finals week, I propose the following. All schools should move finals week to the first week of class, allowing all the stress to get done with right away. So few people really start studying until right before their tests anyway, so it can't make that much of a difference on grades, and it would allow students the opportunity to spend the entire semester actually learning, without worrying about that test looming at the end of the semester.

Furthermore, they could use the "final" to show them that they, in fact, have learned many things throughout the session, instilling a great deal of confidence in the many people that are filled instead with worry and fear.

Of course, at that point, I suppose we could start just handing out grades randomly, but then again, I'm not so sure it doesn't happen that way anyway.