Regular readers (the tiny bunch of you) know that I've been taking Anatomy & Physiology at
UMass Lowell. It's kind of shocking that three weeks into it we're 25% done. I remarked to Arthur yesterday that the pace could best be described as "ripsnorting." We're averaging more than 100 pages of text and a couple of tests a week, one each for lecture and lab. I am learning a lot, but wonder if more would be absorbed by going slower. We were set loose early last night, after the test, so I made it to the last bit of practice.
callyperry asked what the ultimate goal is. I allowed as how being a physical therapist might be a good thing, but a better answer would have been "knowing how my body works."
I spent the last couple of years that Florence was in high school wondering what I'd do after she moved out. My usual thought was to learn to be a librarian - after all, library assistant was a constant volunteer post for at least ten years, I like finding things out, and I like reading. Still, I had some reservations, and never got my act in gear to get started with library school courses. Florence actually left, Arthur & I had a lot of empty nest unhappiness (oversimplification), and I took myself to a "life coach." She was very enthusiastic about my interests in recycling and social justice and encouraged me to consider ways to work those into a more full-time thing. Other people had suggested similar stuff, and one friend had thought about my vegetarian lifestyle and decided that I should become a nutritionist. My gut reaction to these ideas was pretty much "yuck." The coach sent me home with exercises to do, to puzzle out really where I should focus. As I worked through them, I realized that one common thread is interest in movement - dance, tai chi, pilates, walking, ringing. The more I thought of it, the more I wanted to know exactly how it works. It was after that revelation that I started thinking of what might be useful, but really, what made me excited enough to register almost immediately for classes and wait impatiently for them to start was the idea of understanding muscles and joints. (so of course I was irritated when chemistry and cells and stuff started showing up again. The only lab science I took in college the first time around was Botany, and I was disgruntled then to discover that I had to understand ATP. 34 years later and it hasn't gone away. That's life, I guess (joke, sort of)).
I'm worried about my lack of scholarly abilities, but I'm grooving on it enough that it irritates me to have to postpone taking kinesiology until I learn some Physics. argh.
UMass Lowell. It's kind of shocking that three weeks into it we're 25% done. I remarked to Arthur yesterday that the pace could best be described as "ripsnorting." We're averaging more than 100 pages of text and a couple of tests a week, one each for lecture and lab. I am learning a lot, but wonder if more would be absorbed by going slower. We were set loose early last night, after the test, so I made it to the last bit of practice.
I spent the last couple of years that Florence was in high school wondering what I'd do after she moved out. My usual thought was to learn to be a librarian - after all, library assistant was a constant volunteer post for at least ten years, I like finding things out, and I like reading. Still, I had some reservations, and never got my act in gear to get started with library school courses. Florence actually left, Arthur & I had a lot of empty nest unhappiness (oversimplification), and I took myself to a "life coach." She was very enthusiastic about my interests in recycling and social justice and encouraged me to consider ways to work those into a more full-time thing. Other people had suggested similar stuff, and one friend had thought about my vegetarian lifestyle and decided that I should become a nutritionist. My gut reaction to these ideas was pretty much "yuck." The coach sent me home with exercises to do, to puzzle out really where I should focus. As I worked through them, I realized that one common thread is interest in movement - dance, tai chi, pilates, walking, ringing. The more I thought of it, the more I wanted to know exactly how it works. It was after that revelation that I started thinking of what might be useful, but really, what made me excited enough to register almost immediately for classes and wait impatiently for them to start was the idea of understanding muscles and joints. (so of course I was irritated when chemistry and cells and stuff started showing up again. The only lab science I took in college the first time around was Botany, and I was disgruntled then to discover that I had to understand ATP. 34 years later and it hasn't gone away. That's life, I guess (joke, sort of)).
I'm worried about my lack of scholarly abilities, but I'm grooving on it enough that it irritates me to have to postpone taking kinesiology until I learn some Physics. argh.