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It’s a great feeling at the end of each semester when you sell your books back to the bookstore. Even though they only give back about 30% of your original purchase, it’s one of the few times during the year my wallet sees multiple 20s. Having an extra $60 in your wallet at the beginning of Christmas break is a great feeling and it’s easy to forget that you planned on earmarking the money spring semester books.
I gained an immense
amount of respect for my engineering economics professor as I walked to the
bookstore to return the book for his class. I was worried the bookstore wouldn’t
buy the book back because I had written in it so much. The professor allowed
us to have open-book tests; he said we could write notes in the margins, but
we couldn’t actually bring our notes to the tests. I thought "Why
did he make us butcher our books like this?"
Then I realized why… he wrote the book himself! He made us write notes
in the book so the bookstores wouldn’t take our used books back, causing
for next semester’s students to buy more new books…. which results
in more money for the book’s author, the professor! I was learning economics
from an economics genius! I now have tremendous amounts of respect for this
guy. My opinion may change by the end of this new semester- since I’m
taking ethics now.
Speaking of liberal art classes I’ve been putting off until my senior year… I’m taking World Literature I this semester. I’m going to try hard to get an A in these classes since I’ve managed a B in every single English class I’ve taken since sixth grade. I know it must be a shock that the author of many great pieces of literature on this website can’t manage an A in English, but it’s the truth. I’m scared about the class because it’ll require reading actual books, which I haven’t done recently. Actually, I’ve only read three non-textbook books since I’ve been to college; Lee Iacocca’s biography, Al Franken’s new book, and some book that taught me how to study better I read over the break. I don’t think I’ve read fiction since high school (well, much of the Franken book was pretty fictional).
Speaking of English... people say they don’t like listening to lectures by teachers with thick foreign accents. Personally, I don’t mind too much, if anything, I pay closer attention to them. However, what confuses me is when professors with accents mention how they’ve been teaching in this country for over twenty years. Meaning, in many cases, they’ve been speaking English longer than most of their students.
I used to assume it was because it’s hard to change the way you were taught to speak as a child. However, I have a new conclusion. I think they do have the natural tendency to speak like those around them after a couple of decades, but they decide to keep their accents so it’s easier to pick up chicks. Everyone knows the chicks go for the guys with accents.
Even though I prefer my engineering classes to the required liberal arts classes I’m taking this semester, I’m pleased to confirm the rumor that Auburn is still enrolling women.
According to my calculations, 80% of Auburn students got an ipod for Christmas. It seems like it’s a requirement now to either be talking on a cell phone or listening to an ipod while walking to class. Why, when I was a freshman, way way way back in 2002-2003, we didn’t have fancy ipods. In fact, it was such an ancient time then; people didn’t even have cameras on their cell phones! Ok, maybe that wasn’t such a long time ago. Actually, there was a time I considered college seniors as incredibly old. Now that I am one, I’ve redefined ‘old college student’ as anyone who has witnessed Alabama beat Auburn in football while in college. So even though I’m not old, I do remember a time when only goth kids walked around campus listening to music.
Anyways, it’s
good to be back in Auburn. I was getting pretty tired of explaining to old
high school friends back home why it’s perfectly acceptable for college
students to live in trailers and not have $100,000 out in bank loans when
they graduate (many of them are at private schools).
War Eagle!
Mark can be contacted at mark@theauburner.com
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