Questions of Registration

I know what you may be thinking.  Registration issues?  But you’re a senior!  You get top priority!  You don’t have registration issues!

Au contraire, mon ami.  True, I am a senior, and true, I did already get to register yesterday.  However, my registration time wasn’t until 4:15, and seeing as I, like many other seniors, am almost done with all my requirements I wanted to take certain classes for fun.  The thing is, it seems like every other senior also wanted to take these classes: History of Jazz with Professor Bradford and Children’s Literature with Professor Eisenstadt.  With my luck they were both full by 11 am.  Great.

The point of this post, however, is not to complain about my bad luck registration time, but rather to reflect on the fact that this is the last time I will register for a semester at Pomona.

Well, honestly I don’t want this to be an “Oh my gosh I am a senior and this is my last of everything” post either.  However, I am indeed registering for my last semester of college, which is scary.  I wasn’t really well prepared.  I had my heart set on those two classes and didn’t really come up with a viable list of alternatives.  Well, I did/do want to take photography but now I’m not sure if it will fit in my schedule either.  Other than that I only need thesis (a whole credit) and one more EA class for my minor.  I had been so set on taking these four classes that I hadn’t really thought about what else I might like to take.  But then not getting into them made me rethink my whole plan.  It opened up a whole realm of possibilities and began a storm of questions: what do I really want my last semester to be like?  Should I be taking classes for fun?  Where are all those must-take classes, in any subject, and those professors that are just SO cool that you can’t leave Pomona without taking one of their classes?  There should be a list.  I felt like I knew, but now suddenly some are full, and some that I wanted (a Jane Austen class, a Literature of Incarceration class) are not being offered.  Should I take more of what I’m interested in and go deeper (like another perspective on race, class, gender, inequality)?  Should I branch out into something I’ve never explored before (like computer science)?  Should I go for what might be potentially useful for graduate school or a future career?  Unfortunately I don’t know what those might be.  Should I challenge myself?  Should I take it easy—seeing as I have to write most of my thesis next semester?

All of the sudden my mind was flooded with all of these questions and potentials, and honestly I don’t really know where to turn.  I used to say all the time that there were so many awesome classes I wanted to take at the 5 Cs, four years wasn’t possibly enough.  And then I find myself frantically scrolling through different subjects, trying to find something, anything to register for (that I am qualified for—some sound really interesting but require pre-reqs) to have enough credits.  But it’s my last semester!  I don’t want to just take anything, I want to take the best classes I can find.  Or maybe I should take this as a sign and devote myself to community service or something.  I have enough credits—maybe I should just take thesis, EA, and a bunch of PE and music classes.  Maybe I’m putting too much stock into this—I just want to make the most of my time here.

And I’ll try not to look at every one of these from friends on facebook that includes History of Jazz and scowl.  (I’m kidding.  Mostly.)