Chickenminnie’s Weblog

I thought I was done.

Two semesters of clawing and scraping my way through Betty Fryer’s Java classes, wishing feverishly that it would end and having my GPA toppled by getting a B in each class (even though I think Betty was being kind); I’m pretty sure she was glad to get rid of such a wretched student.  For some reason I was living with the delusion that I would never have to write another piece of java code again; I could not have been more mistaken.

You can imagine how I felt a half hour into the Data Structures class when it dawned on me that I was staring down the barrel of another fifteen weeks of writing utterly incomprehensible code that looks like Urdu to me… complete and total panic.  The concepts are easy;  I can sit through a three hour whiteboard lecture, take copious notes and understand everything the professor is saying.   But when it comes to writing the code something gets completely lost in the translation.  I have often wondered if this is some sort of weird learning disability that has yet to be identified or a broken neuron somewhere that’s keeping me from connecting the dots.

As soon as the class was over I double checked the Sage Advisor to make sure this was a requirement; it was.  I checked to see if any community colleges were having the course; surely a two year school had to have an easier Data Structures class than a four year school!  There was nothing to be had. I fretted and stewed for three days before finally coming to the realization that there was no way to get out of the class and that I had better suck it up and deal with it.

It has been a bumpy road, but I am almost halfway through the class.  I advertised for a tutor on Craig’s list and found a patient  PhD student who helped me through a big midterm project. I never miss a class, pay strict attention to the professor and am hoping to claw my way through the remaining classes without denting my pretty decent GPA too badly.

Wish me luck.