SECOND YEAR, LETS CONTINUE

Plato, Aristoteles, Descartes, Hume, Berkeley, Locke, and Boas - my semester in seven words. For this semester I chose a deadly combination of subjects full of philosophy and history. It does not sound like fun, but I am starting to enjoying it. One hundred pages per week give me a really hard time but I am not giving up. I fight. My first subject is called an Introduction to Philosophy, although the name  “extensive philosophy for experts” would make more sense. I have never had a problem with reading and making notes. However, a hundred pages of difficult English with arguments such as: how Descartes proves the existence of the external world or how Thomas Aquinas justifies the existence of God is not exactly a walk through a rosy garden. My second subject of this semester is not much better with the amount of reading, but the content of the course is much better. The subject of American History and Civil Rights includes topics such as the beginnings of racism, early civilizations, eugenics, and slavery. Lectures are interesting, interactive, and engaging. Even though the subject is comprehensive, one can learn countless interesting information steadily relevant today. In History and Systems of Psychology or another philosophy, we look at how psychology has evolved from early philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle to the early twenty-first century. I like the fact that our professor always emphasizes how a certain theory, system or idea is used in psychology today. Another subject is Educational Psychology which is fun. We know most of the theories from our everyday students’ lives. Basically, we just use technical terms for what we experience every day. The last subject, Principles of Ethics is dear to my heart. I enjoy ethics mainly because we have very contradictory opinions in the classroom and the discussions are usually very controversial, However, that is extremely beneficial because it allows one to think about other perspectives than one's own. So this is my semester, my hardest yet, but maybe that's why it is fun. At the moment, I passed all the midterm exams. It was the first time that I have had midterms running for three weeks instead of one and I found out that I am much better at handling short-term intense stress than long-term and less intense stress. After the first week, I already had enough of tests and preparations and when I thought about another two weeks of tests and on top of that with philosophy in the last one, I fought with uncooperative motivation and stress as much as I could.

            I think that the second year of university is crucial in many ways. The first impressions of the new environment, friends, professor,  and subjects have passed and everything is happening somewhat automatically. On the one hand, it is awesome that you are no longer that confused running freshman, but instead, you are a tired crawling second-year student who is a little envious of this enthusiasm from the new stage of life. It's very easy to slip into a stereotype - school, work, coffee, school, work and feel like you're not managing either. To avoid going crazy soon, I decided to revive some of my extracurricular and out-of-work activities, try new things, gain new experience, and thus stimulate enthusiasm in myself - that sophomore, who is no longer easily surprised. Of course, this is not to say that every day at school is the same and stereotypical. Professors always have their ways, such as an unannounced quiz that will make students surprised regardless of whether they are in the second or last year. Nevertheless, let me take us back to trying new things. Each of us certainly has a characteristic of ourselves in the form of our qualities and shortcomings. It incorporates what we enjoy, what we do not enjoy, what we excel at and what we can work on. This characteristic, of course, extends to the end of life, but it depends on whether we give it a possibility to develop. It does not have to be any big changes, it is a matter of self-improvement, being able to step out of the routine and go beyond your comfort zone. Thus, as a part of varying my everyday life, I began to study French again. I try to spend on it at least a few hours each week. I also regularly attend Tedx Circles sessions at school which are very inspiring. Over the next few months, I will also have an internship which I wished for a long time. So far I will not tell more about it because after my first visit I do not want to make hasty conclusions. What I can say is that I look forward and the first impressions are very positive. I believe that not only I will learn new practical information but I also believe that the internship will give me the necessary motivation. Studying is, of course, important, but one should always take time between the pages of textbooks for something new and enriching.

            Right now, I have the last five weeks of this semester ahead of me and I expect it to be far more chaos than it is now. Therefore, I concentrate on gaining strength so that I do not fail in the end.