On Hobbits and Morning Classes

Posted January 28, 2016 by Tara Pealer

I woke up early on Monday morning–

–after hitting the snooze button for twenty minutes and silently yelling at myself to put down the phone and make breakfast, that is.

These past few weeks, save a few days of work and ALA Midwinter, I have had the privilege to sleep in until 9 or 9:30, laze around for half an hour, eat cereal, then another half hour later I’d make some toast, and then, an hour later, I’d make an actual breakfast with actual substance. By the time I had finished that, it was lunch time and the cycle could begin again.

I have long ago accepted the fact that I am probably a hobbit. However, hobbits don’t have morning classes.

I have two 9 AM classes this semester, which means that my hobbit-esque schedule is irreparably broken. Waking up at 6:00 am? Definitely something I have to re-accustom myself to. Luckily, my first class of the semester, LIS 488 (one of the options to fill the technology requirement), I have with two of my dearest friends, so I was excited to hang out with them in class and struggle to learn computer talk and coding together.

Maybe excited is the wrong word. I was happy to see them, but trepidatious about 488 topics, such as talking in computer speak and coding. I wouldn’t say I’m afraid of technology, but I definitely grew up knowing there were Computer People who Fixed Computers and Did the Coding, all of which was Technical and ‘Not My Field’. I thought web design was WordPress blogs or Tumblr or Google blogs. Previously, I thought I was set. I got the internet. I’m a 22 year old millennial. Technology and me grew up together.

Except this class isn’t about how to use the user-end of the technology. It’s about learning how that technology is coded. On the first day, we cracked open an ‘autopsy computer’ (it died and now has joined its place among its comrades to be taken apart by people who don’t know what they’re doing), and tried to understand how a computer physically looks and works. I think I mainly stood there and held the screws while excitedly pointing out that the vent goes behind the fan.

To be honest, though, now that we’re doing the work, my trepidation is disappearing.The exciting part of a new semester, though it lacks mid-day peanut butter and chocolate chip pancakes, is learning new things. I missed the bustle and excitement of a packed semester, as much as I (for about the first week and a half) enjoyed relaxing and not having multiple assignments due every week.

With the familiar pressure and stress building, I feel ready to face this semester head on.