Starting My First Week of Classes at Gonzaga

Hello everyone,

What a weekend we had. I'm glad hurricane Irene is behind us. I know many areas of the the northeast were hit pretty hard and are dealing with problems such as flooding, no power, and delayed travel. Lucky for me, I don't have to wrestle with these problems. I didn't lose power during the hurricane.  Karim and I also managed to drive to and from Wrentham, Massachusetts for a friends birthday party during the day of the hurricane. We also made it back home late that night.

During my drive in this morning I heard stories of people who were seriously impacted by Irene listening to Morning Edition on National Public Radio (NPR). I also went on to facebook and saw posts of folks complaining about no power. Another reminder of how lucky I am not to be dealing with the aftermath of Irene.

While many of my fellow north easterners are cleaning up from this storm, I'm gearing up for my first week of online classes. I actually was able to go online and check out my Blackboard dashboard this past Friday, the dashboard is where I go to get information regarding my classes, view my syllabus, have course discussions, and post my assignments. It is a one-stop shop for my coursework while I'm pursuing this degree.

After I read my syllabus and perused the dashboard, I felt a bit overwhelmed about what my life will be like for the next eight weeks. It is going to be pretty intense balancing my course work with a full-time job. I've been down this road before and know I am up for the task, but it still doesn't stop me from feeling some anxiety. I will have to come to grips with this anxiety and just buckle down and get it down. That is my only option. In order to this I will have to follow a strict schedule and block of times for reading, writing, and more reading and writing.

Usually in the fall I look forward to a few of my favorite television shows kicking-off their season premiere, but the reality is I don't think I will have time to watch many of them, not with all the readings I have. I knew something would have to give so I'm not going to get all emotional about it. I've accepted that for the next eight weeks I will be delving into theories of communication and analyzing the relevance and impact in the field today. Wish me luck and stay tuned.