Taking Stock

The term has just come to its conclusion, so there's time to pause and catch breath. The past week has seen some phenomenally nice weather; although this does seem to be the norm when coursework deadlines start to arrive. Fortunately, it promises to hang around for the next couple of days and thus will provide an appropriate setting to relax in.

The exodus from campus for the break has meant the holiday atmosphere is similarly laid back with a few mostly international, medical or mature students left to hold the fort. Unfortunately for some, the profs are all too well aware of the break, and have assigned more than enough work to fill it. There are at least three pieces of coursework outstanding and a fair bit of background reading to do. So if the weather holds, then it could make for a pleasant working environment in the atrium in a sunny spot.

So what have learned so far? I've heard it said that you learn a lot about yourself at University. This is true for me on many different levels. Arriving in September, I was nursing two ongoing sports related injures. People at work used to tell me that aches and pains start occurring about my age; I suspect it is a culmination of all the abuse that the body gets put through over time. Fortunately, the doctor at the University Medical Centre has extensive knowledge diagnosing sports injuries and the physiotherapist has been very helpful. They were able to treat my shoulder and refer me to a specialist to resolve the issues with my feet, which were found to be less than ideal for running on - but not bad going since I've done two half-marathons and was in the habit of running 10k at least twice a week for the two years.

Anyhow, it has involved me being very patient in holding off from the running, but hopefully I can back into those activities full throttle in the next academic year. Meanwhile for the first time in my life, a convenient indoor pool should keep the heart in good shape.

Next up, I was recently assessed for learning differences and found to be dyslexic. We tend to assume that as people have increasing intellectual capability, then all abilities will rise in a relatively uniform manner with perhaps some slight variation. In the case of a person with a learning difference, they will be excessively bright in some areas and relatively weak in others: the variance of those abilities is outside the statistical norm. Reading and writing at insufficient speed for University education is not uncommon; what you have to do is work around it. For example, I take a longer time than most to ingest a technical specification for a software project, but once the idea has been conveyed, I will work at double quick pace when it comes to the implementation of it.

This isn't really any great surprise to me or anyone who knows me at all well. Fortunately, the people at the Learning Differences Centre (LDC) at the University are very friendly and have expertise in developing learning strategies around the various strengths and weaknesses that a person may have. This may well mean the difference between an A and a B, but also will involve extra work on my part to show what I can do; but again, that's not a shock -- I'm used to it.

Finally, Semester 1 results got returned to us just over a month ago and it took me a good while to get used to them. After the exams, I felt I would be coming back in the summer for one, if not two, of the modules as some of the exams did not seem to go well. As it turns out, I achieved an A- on four of the modules and only missed out on that grade for the remaining one. So a decent set of results all round.

Considering my background and the approach I took during last semester, this is probably what I might have expected. I always look, well not on the black side of things, but at least on the dark grey side. But for now at least, I'm feeling quite mellow about it all.