back to school!

animus || 30s, they/them || biological sciences || "mature" student (nah, i'm just old) || not that aesthetic

[animus-studies]

how is reading week already past and I have absolutely not posted anything so far.

in case anyone cares I did not only pass all my exams but got firsts in everything.

we are seeing some evidence of actual spring happening on campus! (Some evidence. Leaves on trees are still optional.)

this semester I'm taking 3 modules: intro biology: the sequel, now on a macroscopic level; intro maths (very intro); and science communication (which is cool but has group projects)

the biology class is cool, fun facts I learned by googling my lecturers' research include that it is very hard to measure the internal body temperature of a very large free-swimming shark. Problems zoologists have. Also developmental biology is really neat, and vultures really do contribute a lot to ecosystems and deserve a raise.

the group projects are kind of the bane of my existence. that is all. i have so much anxiety about this whole thing and i have to pretend i'm confident. story of my life i guess. at least this will all be over next week.

I'm doing a thing with the drama society again this term but because I had no voice during audition week at all, I decided to try costuming this time. It's really fun and my cast is nice to work with.

and I joined the urban gardening group that maintains a bunch of greenhouses and beds in a corner of the campus. they're pretty cool people. i planted some radishes and hopefully on Mondayi'll make it to the hydroponics training.

[animus-studies]

Exam week!

First exam was yesterday. I don't want to jinx it by saying it went well but I think it went at least okay, and even if not I've got a decent buffer from my continuous assessment.

I'm glad I looked at metabolic pathways as much as I did, though I could've stood to memorise some in more detail. Thankfully, I could still figure it out from what I did know.

This afternoon we have chemistry for biologists. Including physchem, so my brain is alphabet soup because "here's 50 equations you must know for the exam". ...

They finally corrected my first chemistry lab report! The assistant liked my graphs which I generated with a little Python script. I have some points for improvement for next time and still ended up with a good mark. I'm still waiting for the second one but the second one was written during revision week so I honestly put less effort into it.

Wednesday I want to take some time to organise my notes for the geoscience module and then take the open book exam.

And then that's it for this term and I can relax, catch up on housework (I'm NOT the kind of student who cleans to procrastinate...) and reading-for-fun!

[animus-studies]

And just after I had finished the assignment I was talking about in my last post, life got Busy. This is partially my own fault. I joined the drama society and decided to be in a showcase. What is not my fault is that rehearsal week had two midterms and a really big assignment (that I still did ok in! I got 100% on one of the midterms!), and it went on from there. It was really fun though! I loved it.

Other than that:

I finally had chemistry labs! Well I had my last one yesterday, which means I get to spend study week writing the report for it. Yay. Not. I guess it doubles as revision for that topic.

One of the other societies I joined got to tour a plant-climate lab where they study plant growth and metabolism under different climatic conditions! It's really cool! I now have this lab on my list for places I might eventually want to do research.

In other botanical news, College had a Christmas market with college groups and individuals selling handmade things. The college's urban garden had a stall with seeds so I picked some up. I talked to a 4th year botany student who was trying to sell me hard on taking botany as a specialisation. It's on my list of options so I'm glad she likes it.

Exams are almost upon us! There were still (some) classes this week, next week is study week to give us some time for revision. (It's not enough. It's never enough. Fortunately, I've done well enough in my continuous assessment to have some buffer.)

I'm getting way too stressed out about marks, even though i'm objectively doing all right, but I'm just too perfectionist for my own good. Seriously. It's not helpful that all my stuff is graded by a tired postgrad student who isn't bothered writing a lot of feedback.

[animus-studies]

tfw your professors try to put your classmates (who all went to school in a system that was very much designed to maximise points) at ease by telling them the assignments due this and next week are very easy, and it triggers the hell out of your inner perfectionist because now you have no excuse to have a problem with it or to not get at least 95% on it.

bonus points for avoiding finishing it at all because if I declare it Done and it's not Perfect then what?

...well then I get x % on it, with x greater than 0 which is what will happen if I don't hand anything in. No one cares about this mark, anyway. As long as it's a pass it is objectively fine, my other continuous assessment marks are good so far.

I should reframe my objectives for this: the objective is not to do it perfectly and get 100%, but to learn more about the expectations for this type of assignment in this particular faculty, by making an honest attempt and getting feedback. If what I think they want is off from what they did want I will do a postmortem and move on.

and now I am going to get out of my head and finish this assignment.

[animus-studies]

some new study spots last week: the nameless library, and (briefly) this little garden when i realised that the weather had turned sunny for like 1.2 hours (and then promptly went back to "buckets of rain")

i didn't really post last week, busy Doing Stuff - I made it to the archery club's training sessions finally! they have ticketed sessions for beginners on thursdays when i'm usually not free.

also we had an "activity" for the geoscience module that took up a chunk of my time but it's done now. we had to run some simulations and answer like 40 questions but then the actual assessment was just 10 multiple choice questions about our results. (easy 100%! - 1st year grades don't count for anything but, begin as you mean to go on)

this week, reading week is upon us! (or "study week", officially, but everyone says reading week.) it's meant to be a chance for you to review what you have learned so far, we have some midterm quizzes coming up and I have an essay and a lab report to write as well.

i also want to spend some time with my partner, my collections of video games, books and yarn, and maybe organise my room a bit, it's a bit of a mess.

[animus-studies]

This week:

we're doing biochemistry now! The professor is great and also talks about medical applications of what we're learning, which is neat. I still cannot get my eyes to see stereoview images in 3D, especially not on a screen. good thing I don't want to be a structural biochemist anyway.

I'm still figuring out the time management for my geoscience module (we did atmosphere and weather this week!). I'm normally a fast reader but slow way down when I'm taking notes. This week we also have an activity where we need to run a model and comment on the results, which I've started on but am nowhere near finished.

even though I wasn't done with my reading I went on a museum scavenger hunt with the archaeology society on Friday. We narrowly didn't win but saw some cool stuff and everyone who participated could pick something out in the gift shop, so I got some postcards.

campus is really picturesque in fall with all the trees and leaves etc.

i need to find the hat i made last year because, having short hair, i'm cold! also i need some new fingerless gloves for working in the library.

I did one (1) workout, which is better than 0 I guess

on the weekend I went to a friend's house to help press apple juice for cider, which was fun and a nice break. we will drink the results some time next spring/summer. his dog was very pleased that i was there and kept demanding pets throughout the day 💚

[animus-studies]

so I survived my first 2 weeks back at uni!

the good

we had a special orientation for nontraditional students and I have classes with some of the people I met there! so I had people to sit with in my first class which was nice, and we hang out sometimes.

labs are still very basic technique stuff but they're fun. I've missed being in a lab so much.

microbiology is neat and my instructor is really passionate about it so it's fun to hear him talk about it!

I joined some clubs and actually have ever gone to any events. Right now I'm still playing a bit of schedule tetris and figuring out what I can actually attend, though.

I made a good choice picking my optional module for this semester, it's pretty cool! It's about earth system science, which basically looks at the earth as a whole and the interactions and various cycles between its subsystems. seems useful!

campus is very pretty! i'm probably going to post pictures over the next while. the science building has an indoor garden with real trees!

the less good

someone needs to sit on my inner perfectionist. seriously. i have super high standards for myself and everything that isn't getting things perfect is unacceptable, especially now at the beginning while things are still easy, which is very annoying and i'm very stressed right now. as i said to my academic advisor, i'm having fun but i'm stressed.

i'm trying an activity that i've never done before and i'm not immediately good at it which i hate, but i'm going to stick with it and people were super nice about it.

there's so many people everywhere and all my lectures have at least 300 people in them. that is... too many people. i still feel like i barely know anyone.

i'm still figuring out how to manage my time and Mistakes Were Made, but i didn't miss any deadlines and it's fine. it's fine. breathe. i am writing this on a saturday night as i catch up on reading...

all in all things are going well though! i am looking forward to next week.

[animus-studies]

Hi.

I'm a nonbinary person in my 30s (they/them pronouns), and for Reasons I never finished my university degree. Now I wanted to go back to uni and get a degree, for real this time.

This is a journal to document that experience (my main is Elsewhere and less connected to my RL). I'm studying biological and biomedical sciences in Ireland and I'm in my first year! Currently I'm thinking of specialising in an ecology-ish direction but I don't want to lock myself in too early.

Outside of uni I have like 15 hobbies, some of which are assorted textile crafts, drawing (badly), historical recreation, playing the guitar (very poorly) and tabletop RPGs. I've also joined the drama society to try something new, it seemed fun so we'll see where that goes!

I aim to make my notes legible and functional, but not overly aesthetic unless I randomly decide to write revision notes in calligraphy because I can. So... if you're looking for pretty study notes or fancy bullet journal spreads, or even above-average handwriting, look elsewhere, mine is fairly minimalistic with occasional stickers.

I'm not sure what exactly I'll write here yet, probably a mix of journaling, infodumps about cool things I'm learning, study advice, pretty campus pictures, stuff I'm reading/doing outside of uni, and whatever else appeals.