I made it through my second year of university!! My first year was an all-in-one program with the same schedule four days a week, same assignments every two weeks. Switching to a more typical university schedule was a bit of a challenge, but thanks to my trusty planning book, I mapped out all classes and assignments for each entire semester at the beginning of each semester. I took “only” three classes per semester (many students take five), but this is still considered full-time. And I do NOT know how students take more than three at a time…but I do think now that I am a slower reader because I want to absorb what I’m reading. I’ve learned more this past year about the art of taking useful notes in my readings (AKA knowing better what types of questions to ask while I read) and the value of reorganizing lecture notes after each class lecture. I take lecture notes on paper, but then type them into a computer document which gives me review and deeper understanding.
Going back to school in the fall of 2024 was fun because I got to reconnect (and connect some more) with several of my first-year classmates! I also got to record a radio show about my experience of going to school at age 55. I decided to declare an English major, with two minors: one in the History of Science and Technology and the other in Esoteric and Occult Traditions. At some point, I may apply to do a Combined Honours in English and the History of Science and Technology, keeping the other minor, too. I never would have thought I would be interested in HoST, but as I browsed classes during my first year, most of the classes that interested me were in that department! I took two introductory HoST classes (that surveyed the history from ancient times to modern) over the year, a survey of English literature from medieval times to 1800, and a class in the history of Magic/Science/Occult. That third one was my favourite of the fall semester. I had no idea that magic was actually a worldview during much of history around the world. I was completely fascinated to learn about this, starting with Ancient Mesopotamia and moving through time to modern beliefs. We even reviewed the infamous “satanic panic” that I actually lived through and saw up close during the 1980s. As a side note, I told the class about that era, including saying where I had grown up. It turns out that one of my young classmates has a mother who went to junior high school with me in Maine!
My winter classes consisted of English Mystery and Detective Fiction (as a diehard Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden fan years ago, I HAD to take this class and it did not disappoint) and a history of witchcraft trials in Early Modern Europe. Again, I had no idea that 75-100 thousand people were killed in Europe during this situation – far more than the only other trials I had been familiar with, growing up in New England (the Salem witch trials). In the Mystery/Detective Fiction class, we read our way through the beginnings of the genre, through its varied iterations, to around the 1980s. I really loved the professor for that class; the way she conducted lectures and the methods she helped us learn in order to analyze what we were reading were really valuable to me. I love it when a prof knows how to break down learning into small increments so that we can learn the skills step by step. Actually, my history of witchcraft professor was the same – very explicit instructions on how to analyze and write about what we learn. This is what I try to do in my tutoring for children; break down learning and build up from there.
One other opportunity I had during my winter semester was to write a First Person column for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation! It was so fun; you can read more about that experience here.
Random note: look closely at my winter photo below. The skies have pastel colours, but the trees do, too!
Spring arrived and classes were in full swing, with no time for me to do the hands-on crafts that I love so much. At the same time, my mother-in-law was deteriorating rapidly with dementia, and she died on March 8. It was a very sad time; she had always been very kind to me and we always talked about the latest craft/art projects we were each working on. I’m grateful to my professors for giving me a bit of leeway with assignment due dates during this time.
The end of March and beginning of April brought final research projects and final exams to prepare for. I was really worried about one of the exams, as I never had been able to really grasp what the professor was looking for. But I took some tips I had learned for studying for other exams, applied them with every tactic I could think of, and ended up doing pretty well on the exam. Phew, that one is over! Overall, I think humanities exam are TOUGH. They consist of a lot of short answers, longer analytical answers, and analytical essays. But I did see, in the end, how careful reading, attention during lectures, office hour visits, discussions about topics, and care in essay writing can make exam review a lot easier. Well, and ultimately, make the material stick in my mind beyond the exams, too!
I was pretty relieved, though, when my final exam was done on April 14. After a few days of doing nothing but recovering, I started doing all sorts of home/life catchup tasks. For one thing, I discovered an item called Souper Cubes; quality-made heavy silicone freezer trays with measured “cavities” and covers. I pulled out my two crock pots, went shopping, and batch cooked for days, freezing meals in these cube trays and placing the frozen cubes into large ziploc freezer bags. I have always done this, but the habit went by the wayside when I started this school adventure. These cube trays make it so that I can freeze many more meals in the same amount of freezer space, with much less mess (no more small freezer bags to have to rewash – only the occasional big one). They are meal sized cubes (1 c. and 1/2 c.), and I cooked everything I could find in the cupboards, including the rest of the rice and the oat groats! I aim to have a lot frozen before I start school again in September, because it will make my life a LOT easier while school is in session. A cube of chili and a cube of rice? Yes, please!
One last thing to add in this little update, I am taking a summer course which I am thoroughly enjoying! It is part of the HoST program, and it’s called The Origins of Medicine – so a survey of how the medical profession looked in ancient Mesopotamia/Egypt/China/India/Greece, and moving from there to the middle ages and into modern times. I have seen a lot of overlap with the history of magic course, and am completely fascinated by ancient Mesopotamian medicine and the idea of the stars and celestial bodies bringing healing to people on earth. It’s just so fun to study different worldviews! Also, this class is a core class in a Certificate in Medical Humanities, which I may also include in my degree.
Thanks for reading; please let me know in the comments any thoughts or questions you have, or just tell me what you are up to these days!