Middle Earth University

My college classes just got out for the quarter. Spring Break! Yay! As I was thinking about school this morning, an interesting thought came to me. What if there was a Middle Earth University. My mom and I started brainstorming classes that would be offered, so I decided to make a list of instructors and what they would teach. Each one gets three different classes. Keep in mind this is based mostly off the movies. I can't really remember the books, though I plan to reread them soon.

·         Aragorn-

1.       How to Get Women

2.       Herb lore

3.       Being Extraordinarily Gorgeous

·         Arwen-

1.       How to Get Men

2.       Speaking Elven

3.       First Aid (specializing in stab wounds)

·         Bilbo-

1.       Cartography

2.       Smoke Rings 101

3.       Story-telling

·         Boromir-

1.       Scaring Hobbits (It’s fun!)

2.       Resisting Pain (specializing in multiple arrow wounds)

3.       Nationalism

·         Eowyn-

1.       Female Rights

2.       Horseback Riding

3.       Cooking

·         Frodo-

1.       Grooming (specializing in foot hair)

2.       Anger Management

3.       Object Disposal (specializing in rings)

·         Galadriel-

1.       Mind Reading and Other Tricks

2.       Beauty & Fashion

3.       How to Sound Wise

·         Gandalf-

1.       Self-defense (specializing against Balrogs)

2.       Fireworks

3.       Smoke Rings 102

·         Gimli-

1.       Smithing

2.       Elves Are Your Friends! (Why Not to be Racist)

3.       Bragging

·         Gollum-

1.       Riddles

2.       Psychology (specializing in Dissociative Identity Disorder)

3.       Real Estate (specializing in caves)

·         King of the Dead(classes for the recently deceased)-

1.       Intimidating Mortals 101

2.       Intimidating Mortals 102

3.       Oaths and Curses

·         Legolas-

1.       Outdoing Your Friends

2.       Extreme Sports (specializing in stair surfing and elephant jumping)

3.       Martial Arts

·         Merry & Pippin-

1.       Pilfering From Sam’s Garden

2.       Pilfering Gandalf’s Fireworks

3.       Talking to Trees

·         Sam-

1.       Gardening

2.       Ethics- Loyalty (Honor Course)

3.       Gollum Name Calling

·         Saruman-

1.       Army Management

2.       Speech

3.       Trapping People and Keeping Them Trapped (specializing in killing giant eagles)

·         Sauron-

1.       Jewelry Making (specializing in rings)

2.       You Are Special (Regaining Self Confidence After a Massive Defeat)

3.       Working in Extreme Conditions (specializing in volcanoes)

·         Theoden-

1.       Dealing With Grief

2.       Regaining Youth

3.       Seeing Through Deceit

·         Wormtongue-

1.       How to Not Get Women

2.       Being a Creep

3.       Backstabbing

Not Enough Hours in the Day

College takes a lot of time. I think it's interesting how much of the day it takes up, considering that most people who go are adults who have to support themselves and sometimes their families.

I have three classes that I'm taking. Chemistry 121, English 101, and English 252 (medieval lit.). My chemistry class is a two hour class, but I only have it three days a week. Both English classes are one hour classes that are held Monday-Thursday. This means that on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday I am in classes from 8:00am-12:10pm. On Tuesday I only have class from 10am-12:10pm. However, I have seminary (a Monday-Friday class where I go to the church and learn about scripture stuff) in the morning and a carpool arrangement that makes it so that I can't just go home when I finish class. With this taken into account, I'm away from home from 5:50am-about 2:00pm. Still, that doesn't sound too bad, right? Wrong. It may seem like the typical high school schedule, but there's one thing I haven't yet mentioned.

Homework. In college, there are less hours that you have to actually spend in class, but this is made up for with extra homework. The typical amount of homework per class is approximated to be about two hours per class, which means six hours for me. I've been able to work out a system with my current classes so that I get all of my homework done within four hours on week days. However, I do all of my homework when I get home instead of in my free time at school. I use that time for writing my book, which is important because it's potentially my entire future. So I can typically be completely done with school stuff at 5 or 6 in the evening. Keep in mind though that I have to get up at 5am to get ready for my morning class, so to get a full nine hours of sleep I have to be asleep by 8pm. That only leaves me two or three hours for things like dinner and free time.

That schedule works fine right now, but what if I want a job or if I decide to get some more extracurricular activities to put on my college resume? Or what if I just need a night with my friends? I'd have to start managing my time differently and cutting down on things I really care about like my writing. Either that or start failing my classes, which is not an option.

I'm not complaining. This all works fine for me. I think I manage to get enough extra stuff done to impress the university I plan to go to, and I don't need a job yet. As for friends, I'm content to save them for the weekends. I just wonder about other people. The people with families to take care of. How do they handle it all?

About me

Hello again! I decided to do a normal blog post today instead of another story post. I realized that in my original introduction post, I told you almost nothing about me as a person, so I figured I had better fix that.

I, Arriah, am a pretty normal girl. I'm sixteen, I'm the oldest of four children, and I'm currently enrolled in Granite Falls High School. Oh, but my schooling... That's where the first of my oddities come in. You see, even though I'm enrolled in GFHS, I don't attend there. I don't even have any classes there. I am a part of the Running Start program, which means that all of my classes are taken at Everett Community College, for both college and high school credit. When I graduate from high school, I will also have my Associate's degree. Pretty cool, huh?

My hope is then to attend BYU. But not in Utah. In Idaho. The one in Utah is considered a better school, and much harder to get into. That's not the reason I chose Idaho though. I simply feel that BYUI is a better fit for me. However, as time pulls me toward graduation, my interests and dreams are changing. I'm still open to other schools and other paths. I get emailed by various universities daily, telling me about the benefits of attending their schools. I could unsubscribe from the program that gives them my email address, but I don't, because I want to consider all my options.

Um, other than my schooling... I like to write, obviously. I also love to read, act, and work on big projects that consume my interest for a few days or even weeks before I return to reality. And, this post is becoming way too long. Time to stop talking. That's another thing, I don't talk much. I write a lot, but unless I'm acting I tend to be rather quite and even shy.

...And I'm a Mormon.