my first semester at Olin* (part 3 of 3)

*See part 1 of 3 post for my definition of "Olin."


3- "Marco and the Lounge" a tale of humor, enjoyment, and woe. ;)

So prior to coming to Olin, I didn't ever really work hard at school. I know it seems odd, that to explain my schooling college experience I go back to my experience in the 3rd and 4th grades, but it's actually incredibly relevant. (Though it will make for another long post ;D ) In any case, I grew up in San Diego, CA but my home is in Tijuana, Mexico. The commute always was tough, and early on my parents decided that it would be best for me to attend school in Mexico for a couple of years in order to actually consider myself fluent in Spanish. It didn't work, because I wasn't there too long, but it was certainly a huge part of my scholastic experience. For this reason I attended a bilingual school in Tijuana for 3rd and 4th grades.

My school was incredibly competitive. Lots of students there came from families with plenty of financial girth if you will, so being told your children were smart and seeing them dress up formally (military style that is) was oh so fitting of their social class. In any case, the top student for English and for Spanish were given these big HONOR banner things, and since I'd gone to school K-2nd in the states, I knew English well enough that by default, I took all the awards. I came close in Spanish as well, but the point of this story is something my fourth grade teacher did to me. She didn't really like me. I was a foolish 4th grader, and I corrected her poor English in front of the class, not to be an asshole, but because I thought she might be teaching the other students poor English...despite my good intentions, I don't think I was all that tactful in my corrections... In any case, she ended up changing my grades so I wouldn't receive the "HONOR" banner thing, and it was a big ordeal that ended up going to the Secretary/Board of Education...I pretty much stopped caring about grades after that.

In fifth grade everything was easy enough that it didn't matter, but once 6th grade hit my grades slipped. I would receive high grades for most of my work, but then just not turn what I happened to not get to, and thus get zeros for that work. I didn't really understand how those assignments destroyed my grades, but from 6th-8th grade my parents constantly got on my case (rightfully so) about my lack of interest in doing well in school. Its not that I couldn't but it just didn't bother me at the time. 8th grade I started caring, but I did so much extra work for the teachers that I would not finish my own work at times. Once high school started I got my act together, but I hardly ever worked hard at what I did. Only in a handful of AP classes did I really work hard, and that was a personal choice, when I did work above and beyond what was expected of me. And then I got to Olin.

Well, merely going through the hoops wasn't going to work at Olin. My first assignments made me think and pushed the boundaries of my definition of what was considered "school work." Rote learning was a beast I'd tamed a long time ago, and to be asked to actually LEARN instead of memorize things "enough" to ace tests was mind blowing. Naturally, (and unfortunately,) I reacted poorly. I spent most of my semester doing "work" in the 2nd floor lounge of my dormitory. I sat in the same chair, for an entire semester. I did ok I suppose, but I also had an atrocious level of efficiency, and as a result had to pull at least a dozen full all-nighters that semester. Sure I enjoyed my time, I know I got to know lots of people because of my social tendencies that first semester, but that was not going to fly for very long. The worst of it all was that for several classes I was so close to pulling off something I would have been proud of, but I was always 10 hours short, 5 hours short... By the end of the semester I knew less math and physics than I would have liked and way more about card games, DDR, Guitar Hero, and other distractions that were huge parts of lounge culture...The second semester I vowed would be different. I would work hard, no matter what the cost, and I would NOT be "one of those kids" who never did work and just sat in the lounge all the time. I think I did that second semester, though. In fact, not only did I do it, I OVER did it. This is a story for another time, but during the second semester I became addicted to serious amounts of caffeine and had weeks with more than 100 hours of scheduled meetings and work, but....(<--don't ever do that.