Today

I woke up this morning tired, stiff, and dreading the morning. Why? Maybe because it is Monday, or maybe because I’m just not a morning person, or maybe, just maybe it was because I have to take my second set of Comps tonight. This is Set 2 attempt 1. And then D) it could be all of the above.

This is the specialty set. It focuses on Professional and Technical Writing, which is actually what I’m getting my degree in. I’ve been studying all weekend. I’m not sure who’s brilliant idea it was to put this test right around Easter. Okay okay, so truth of the matter is that’s just how it fell. Fall, it is the last Thursday/Monday of October and Spring it is the Thursday/Monday after Spring Break. It just so happened Easter was early this year and it fell the week after spring break. I’m still going with that wasn’t brilliant planning.

Is it odd to admit that I’m not nearly as stressed about this set of comps as I am/was about the other set? When it comes down to English, my weakness is literature. It always has been and I’m not sure why. I like to read, although some of those authors are dark… I’m talking DARK! I’m not really crazy about that I guess. Life is too depressing, give me something upbeat. ha!

When I got home Thursday night after taking the other set, I was a mess. I’m not sure how it went as they said it’d be about a week for results, but I was a mess. I’m still not sure I passed because I didn’t completely get finished. I left the graders a note that I wasn’t finished and wanted to address this this and this…. we’ll see what happens I guess….

But for now, it’s time to focus on the next round. Friday I woke up and started studying for this round, read the sample questions that were sent to me and about freaked out again. I didn’t feel like I could answer any of them. I felt overwhelmed and just down right in the dumps.

Today I have a different outlook. I read through the sample questions. There are 2 sections 4 questions in each. I can actually answer a couple in each section and only have to be able to answer 1. Now that’s not to say that these are the questions I’ll have tonight… so there is that little added stress of not knowing what is coming, but the best I can do is attempt to answer and see what happens.

But I’m not nearly as stressed out as I was Thursday. Maybe it was helpful that Easter happened this weekend… I guess we’ll find out.

I needed to take a couple minutes and digest the 2 books I’ve already read this morning and just write, so that’s what I’m doing now. One of the books I read was Digital Literacy for Technical Communication: 21st Century Theory and Practice edited by Rachel Spilka. The other I read was HTML & CSS for Beginners with HTML5 by Mark Lassoff. I can actually geek out on that kind of thing, heck I built my own photography website from the ground up. (not today though….) I did it to practice HTML for comps.

The next text I’m getting ready to digest… Usability Testing Essentials by Carol M. Barnum. Wish me luck! I think I might need it… ha. Although I conducted my own usability experiment last spring for a class.

So I’m going back to studying but I’ll leave you with a family photo from yesterday, Easter. (and once life settles down, there will be more on Easter too :))