Fall Semester Goals - Revisited

In terms of academic goals, I've found that staying on top of my written work has not been very difficult — I already had developed a "system" for budgeting time for doing readings, research, and writing papers. What was difficult was budgeting time for studying Organic Chemistry and Biology. I realized, perhaps a little too late, that studying the week before an Orgo exam was not effective. In order to really get the material, I had to practice it until I had dreams about reaction mechanisms. It is rather similar to learning a foreign language — you don't learn just by hearing, but by writing and speaking everyday, until the rhythms of the language become natural.

Organic Chemistry has been a difficult class, probably the most difficult class I've had since AP Biology in high school, but not necessarily a "scary" class. While many of the nurses I work with respond to the phrase "I'm taking Orgo" as if I said "I eat cactus for breakfast," and describe Orgo as a sort of necessary evil, I've found the material quite interesting. While I can't find a direct connection between Orgo and nursing (other than the pictures of pharmaceutical compounds in some of our exams), I've decided that Orgo being a requirement for some nursing schools is enough of an "ulterior" motivation. When I need a "boost" while studying, I try to imagine getting a first set of scrubs for nursing school. It helps.

So does cooking. While emotional eating is not recognized as a positive habit to develop, I've found that when I'm in a studying/working rut, stabbing dough with a spoon is surprisingly cathartic. Grocery shopping, which I know most adults view as a chore, is relaxing for me. The half hour walk to the grocery store is a good time to just plug in to my iPod, and after being on a meal plan for two years, it's a lot of fun to decide what will be in my kitchen. While most of my non-"quickie" cooking has been desserts (pumpkin pie, brownies, cookies, apple crisp), I've found that that's the kind of cooking I can get excited about. It's a good thing I spend so much time walking to class/work. Otherwise I think this kind of cooking would have serious consequences.

Perhaps I should start venturing more into entrees. I've already done mushroom quiche and vegetarian chili. Today I made fried polenta with cumin and pepper, which was very yummy, but perhaps not something I should make on a regular basis. So, my next unofficial cooking goal: practicing recipes that don't involve copious amounts of sugar or butter/oil that aren't chili.