Back to School

I made the first official step toward moving on yesterday by registering for a second semester class at Penn. I did not take a class this semester because I was told to be prepared to drop it and I did not feel like losing money. I dropped the class I had signed up for on the first day of classes and was not charged.

The class I never took was an English class--the literature of end of life--that would have dove-tailed nicely with the Bioethics course I took last summer, but it was clear that it would have been a lot of work, especially a lot of reading. With so many variables up in the air, it just did not seem right to me to start something I could not finish to the best of my abilities. In retrospect, I clearly could have done it and probably would have enjoyed it, but who knew.

This class is a history course entitled What Is A Book? and the relevance of the title alone should give you an idea of where my head is. I am truly looking forward to returning to school. One thing I never realized was how much I would miss it.

I am approaching the end of my course of study. This class will make the seventh of 8 required classes plus a thesis, which actually counts as a course. My original plan was to sum bit a chapter of the book as my thesis. At this point, who knows if that will happen. I actually emailed my advisor yesterday to suggest I submit the proposal which clearly could be Exhibit A in what does not sell.

Clearly I'm trying on many levels to talk myself into accepting the outcome of this adventure as a learning experience.