It comes just twice a year; the infamous college registration period. “Schedulizer” and “AU Schedule of Classes” tabs have taken over your browser. Your email is filled with attempted correspondence with your advisor. Maybe you should change your major. Biology is cool, right? Calculus is a requirement? Okay, no. Maybe Communication? They’re getting a new building. That’s fun.
Maybe you’ve already gotten into all your classes, maybe you’re waitlisted. Either way, unless you’re graduating in the spring (snaps to you guys), class registration will be back in just a semester. Here’s my second article in the #LostInSIS series. Registration Woes and How to Cope. Enjoy.
Last year, registration was a breeze. I sat on a comfortable cushion of high school credits and got to sign up well ahead of my peers. SIS gave me one of their ever-changing requirement sheets. I just pointed a finger and there was my schedule. Yay!
This year, things were a little different. All of a sudden, I had a lot more to worry about. What will my area and thematic concentration be? My minor? What internships will I get? What if I don’t like them? What will my first job be? What about my career? What if I’m not successful? What if I can never pay off college loans? Am I at the right school? Questions swirled through my mind day and night leading up to registration. On top of all of that, classes I needed to take were filling up. And I couldn’t control any of it. All I could do was sit and stare at my computer, boring a hole into the screen as “slots filled” ticked up and up and up. This is it, I decided. The signs have all aligned. I’ll drop out tomorrow. The odds are just not in my favor. I had somehow decided that the spring semester of my sophomore year would forever dictate my path in life. If I couldn’t have the classes I wanted, the classes I needed, I might as well throw in the towel.
Dramatic, I know. Somehow, I made it to my registration date in one piece. I had thrown together a jumble of classes; some gen eds, some major requirements, my last required Arabic class. Just for kicks, I threw in guitar and a yoga class. And, just like that, I’d registered. That was it. It was so very…anticlimactic. This registration period was supposed to assert everything! Why hadn’t it answered all of my questions? Why hadn’t it filled in all the holes in my ten-year plan? I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this during registration. If you have, my sympathies go out to you. After registration failed to answer all the questions of the universe, I gradually came to this conclusion. I hope it assures you as it has me.
College is important. SIS is an amazing school. Good grades are ideal. Internships equal opportunities. But these things are not everything. I’m not saying people shouldn’t go to college or strive for achievement. But if I’m letting something as small and mundane as one semester’s registration control every bit of my life and self-esteem, there has to be something wrong.
Being part of the SIS community, I think people often get caught up in the buzz and image of it; the trip to India, the human rights internship, the perfect blend of hipster- goes-professional attire, nose ring, pencil skirt, and heels. Everyone’s both highly competitive and cooperative. I know I’ve gotten lost in it over the past year and a half. In a way, the stress of registration this year helped steer me on a path out. I remembered the last time I felt that way, applying for colleges, and how, just a few months later, I had completely forgotten about it. My spring classes will be important, no doubt. They matter. But they are not all that matters.
Whether you’ve gone through this or not, I think my advice rings true and valuable to every college woman. What we do today matters. But there are always going to be things tomorrow that we have no control over. And the number of things we can’t control only grows as we age. So, for now, let’s just try to keep in mind that somehow, life will always go on. I’d rather graduate from SIS with confidence because I took the classes I wanted, than with a resume filled with unpaid internships that left me unfulfilled and doubtful of my interests and identity. This might all just be me, but from fellow SIS students, from fellow AU students, I don’t think so. Until next time.
IMAGE: http://alumniassociation.american.edu/s/1395/images/editor/school_images/sis.jpg