Never Pass Up a Moment to Punch Your Professor

Going into my fourth year at Coe, I've realized that SOMETHING always happens each week when you're in college- whether it be academic, social, or internal.

A few weeks ago, it was something situational. I'll spare you the details, and just let you know that I was not in the best of moods and was taking it out on my hardest class with my hardest professor. I came to class ticked off, didn't know what was going on, and honestly, I was behind. The material was tough, and having issues going on in my life combined with the stresses from Ramadan wasn't helping. I was mad at the school system as well-- at other Islamic schools across the country, students had half days for school with reduced workload to accomodate for Ramadan. It was made up by a more rigorous class schedule during the year, and about two weeks extra of class. I didn't care about the two weeks extra class at the time, so long as I could be cut some slack from the fatigue I was feeling. It's hard watching students around me keep pace and live normally while I'm a little behind because, well, I'm usually tired and can't focus. And I'm just practicing my religion here...

Well, needless to say, my professor noticed. One day, he tracked me down and asked what was up. I didn't really want to say, but ended up pouring out a bunch of frustrations. The pouring out was a help, though to be honest I felt a little weird afterwards because I hadn't wanted to tell him, per say. However, after a little thought, I realized that this was not the only time this professor had come through for me:

Last year I had just fished an organic chem test, and was walking to the Writing Center for my shift. I was frustrated. I felt that I had known the material like the back of my hand, having studied for two weeks prior; but the test was still challenging. It's very hard for me to hide ANY emotion I'm feeling, and as such, my professor, who was getting coffee from the Writing Center, noticed my frustration as I walked in.

He asked, yet again, what was up, and I went on a huge rant about trying my best and feeling like I got everything wrong.

"Man, that sucks," he said. "Makes you just want to punch something, doesn't it?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed.

He moved to the side and offered me his arm. "Here ya go. I know I'm gonna regret this."

I was confused, but then, suddenly, I just punched his arm. Hard. Amazing! I hate to say it, but the thought that I had just punched my professor and wasn't going to get in trouble for it made me happy. Had it been anyone else, I probably wouldn't have taken them up on it. But how often do you get to say, "I punched my professor" and actually mean it?

I'm not advocating violence in any way, mind you. However, I am grateful to the professor who was able to take a frustrating experience and make it into a laughable memory.

And, I ended up doing well on that particular test. :-)

The Camping Itch

I'm an outdoors girl.

More like an adventure girl.

I always felt that by saying "I'm an outdoorsman", one would get the vision of a person dressed in camouflage, sporting a rifle in one hand and a fishing pole in the other. But if you say, "I'm all about adventure", you see a person paddling hard on the whitewater rapids, galloping quickly through fields and forest, swimming and splashing in a river with friends, and sleeping under that stars on a hammock at night.

Thus, I'm the adventure girl.

This past weekend I was driving to Ames, IA. It was the first time I was driving a long distance during the day. I watched Iowa pass by me; I saw the blend of the agriculture and the prairie, and I once again experienced a magnificent sunset.

If there is one thing I have had more exposure to in my life than any other place, it's the sunsets.

So anyway, I was getting a feeling of deja vu. Whenever close friends and I from Coe or anywhere else would pile in the car and go on another camping adventure, there's always the 'road trip'. Even if the 'road trip' is only a half an hour, you never miss out on the tingling anticipation on the way there, or the pull of nature and everlasting memories as you leave. It's almost as if the 'road trip' is longer than the camping experience itself.

Here's a pic of my friend Erin and Ted prepping for the 'road trip'. 

I was getting that 'road trip' feeling as I was driving into Iowa. It made me think of the greatest moments in life being on the camping trips:

Jumping in the Wapsipinicon river and losing glasses, eating homemade trail mix, staying up until 4 am to have the most silly and most meaningful conversations, mistaking boulders for bears, actually stumbling across bears (!!!), running through the campground shouting "giggity!" at the top of their lungs, splunking, kayacking, snorkeling Devil's Lake, having breakfast pancake mix wars, forgetting firewood- twice,  cheating by throwing futon mattresses in the tent for "luxury camping", "roughing it" and having to clear the land with a weed whacker and getting firewood with a chainsaw, shooting cans, making s'mores, ... the list goes on and on.

 

Pancake Wars.

It's the little things in life that make it worth it, especially when things are tough. These moments took only minutes, seconds, hours... but they have made me feel like my life is one of the greatest in the world. 

It's probably because camping is such a connection with the world. We can only be engaged with society for so long- with the classrooms, studying, socializing, studying, shopping, studying, research, studying, networking... did i mention studying? We can only take so much before we need to escape. Escape to relax, make ourselves center, actually think without everything going too fast around us. It's as if nature is taking us in the palm of its hand, and just cradling us while we remember who we are and why we live.

Damn...I miss camping. 

One of the best camping trips--ever. 

Hi, i'm Sakinah. And it's Ramadan

Hi, I'm Sakinah.

I suppose if you're going to be reading my posts, we ought to get to know each other. Or, in this case, you can get to know me. I suppose I'll never really get to know the people who are reading my thoughts each week; but who knows. Maybe if you stumble across Coe one day, you can introduce yourself and we can have an awkward moment of you knowing me but me knowing nothing about you. Anyway.

I'm a senior here at Coe this year. Yep... final year. Provided I can get through the hardest course known to man-- Physical Chemistry. And with that, I should probably inform you that I am a Chemistry and Environmental Science major, with a potential minor in mathematics. No, I'm not sure what i was thinking when I signed up for this. Maybe a job.

Ramadan started just last Labor Day, on September 1st. For the first two days, I was traveling, so I was "exempt" from fasting, if you will. But as soon as school started, the fasting began. 

It's interesting going through the fasting process now that I'm in an apartment. In the past, I would wake up in the morning and have whatever i could fit into my tiny dorm fridge and whatever I could throw into the microwave. It wasn't bad; but it didn't have the home feeling that I was used to from Ramadans past. Nevertheless, this year is a lot better. I can wake up in the apartment, and be able to cook for myself, and for iftar, or the break fast, I don't have to rely on the cafeteria's hot meal hours (which end at 7, despite the fact that I can only start eating around 7:15, 7:30). I can now cook whatever meals I want, and be able to adjust my diet so that I'm getting what I want to eat.

The studying it harder, I'm not going to lie. I suppose this is probably because in the late afternoon you start to lose focus; that and in college, every student is busy 24/7, and when you have a cut back on your daily nutritional intake, there's an effect. It makes me wonder what it would be like if they actually did cut school to half days, if that would make a difference.

At this point, any adjustment in my favor would make a difference.