According to the original plan, I should have a bachelors from the University of Texas at Tyler in something by now. My fourth year came to a close with this past semester and due to This, That and The Other I am not done here. I’m won’t go into detail about what TTTO are. It would take too long. It’s really rather boring. But suffice to say I’m still here and chugging away at a Mass Comm. degree and, provided everything goes well, I’ll qualify to walk come December 2012. Here’s hoping.

A video production class and advance multimedia news writing class lurk up ahead in large coats and hats pulled low, obvious, very obviously waiting and unavoidable. I look forward to them, but at the same time… I wouldn’t mind being surprised with a way of side-stepping them. I am done, even if the school isn’t done with me. It’s been exciting in both good and bad ways. Just saying “I’ve learned a lot” doesn’t even begin to cover it. I’m just tired of worrying about grades, I suppose. A great deal of what I’ve enjoyed is applying everything just to see what’s possible. It’s nice to have the grades to validate the work, but there’s little satisfaction in achieving the pat on the head that is the implied goal of school. The learning and creating and learning more from that process and creating more and better material is the fun part. I think it’d be much more enjoyable without worrying about whether the hand over my head will make favorable contact or not. I love my teachers and everything they’ve lead me to and helped me achieve. It really doesn’t seem like a lot, I guess, in the end, but it’s all going to continue brewing and mixing with the constantly new experiences to culminate over and over again into all sorts of things. The things my teachers meant to teach and the things that came from simply having met each teacher… I’m sure those will be used in all sorts of situations. Off the top of my head, I couldn’t say what the situations might be. I’d rather not speculate and come to expect them anyway, really. (Those sorts of things stick out more that way, makes them a bigger part of the adventure.) It just seems to be the way of the world to pull those tricks. Learning one thing in one way for one purpose and suddenly finding it comes in handy in several other places as well. It’s cool that way. I guess we’ll see.

In the meantime, only needing those two classes to finish the major (and a third for the minor) means I have a hole lot of time to fill up with other things. More than likely, whatever fills up that time will be put to use in this Mass Comm. business, too. Again, we’ll see. Wish me luck! It’s an adventure!