My Outlook on This Semester

My first visit to my apartment was two full weeks ago today. One of my roommates moved in early so I wanted to visit him, along with some other friends who had also moved onto campus early. I was super excited to see our apartment for the first time. It is so much better than the dorms I had lived in the past two years both in terms of quality and size. It is different not having a meal plan this year, but so far making all my own food is going well. It is also interesting to spend money weekly to get food instead of one bulk purchase at the beginning of the semester.

In terms of courses, I am taking six classes this semester. This is the same as most semesters, so this doesn’t concern me, but so far these courses seem like they will be harder. All my courses this semester have much more writing as well. Of those courses, four are ECCS and two are in other departments. The first ECCS course I am taking is Networks. It is going very well so far. I have a little bit of experience with networks, but I am not sure how far that knowledge will carry me into the semester. My second class is UI Design. This class is also going well so far, but I don’t have much experience there. In general, I dislike designing UIs, but it should go fine. The third course I am taking is Software Engineering. I am not sure how this course will go. I have around a year’s worth of work experience in IT and software development, so I am curious to see how it will go since there is always a difference between academia and industry. My fourth and final ECCS course is Programming Languages. This course is shaping up to be a fun course that I have a fair amount of prior experience in. There will be parts of this course that I have no experience in, but at the same time I am not worried about it. I have been able to pick up new languages fairly quickly so far, so I feel safe assuming that trend will continue.

I do have two courses outside ECCS that I am taking. The first is Technical and Scientific Writing. This course should go well, but it is a bit outside my comfort zone. I am liking the course so far; however, it still seems to be in its introductory phase. I do dislike writing to write, so I am hoping that a lot of the writing we will be doing is over something I am interested in. The last course I am taking is Principles of Social Media. This course is solidly outside my comfort zone. In my day-to-day life I don’t use social media much, so a lot of this course is somewhat new to me. I have used social media as an observer before, but never as a creator. I have also never used social media in a professional capacity, just a causal capacity. This is another new aspect that I will have to get used to. Overall, I think this course will go well. It will take some getting used to, but I am looking forward to it!

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