A Conversation with Elizabeth
1999
Exams over

From:          Elizabeth 
Sent:          Thursday, April 22, 1999 3:36 PM
To:            LMixson@PEC.com
Subject:       Exams over
 
Isn't that awful about that shooting in Colorado.[1]  I could not look at the news and I have yet to read the paper(s), but it's awful.  I have a German newspaper website in my favorites and for some reason I had it open.  Their headlines were all about the "Hitler" connection.  Apparently the day of the shooting was Hitler's birthday and one of these "boys" idolized Hitler. 
 
I bombed my test.  I was very upset, but for a short period of time.  I'm too old and too mature to let something like that devastate me for long.  Initially it was a blow.  My only prayer is that someone told me that last semester in the first part of the course if you got 25 points out of 100 you got a D.  The highest grade was 60 last semester (and I did not make it this time.)  I'm hoping I got enough points somehow to get a D.  Unfortunately if I get an F I would have to take it all over down the road, not right away as it is only offered once a year. AND I have him again next term.  But, he is a very good teacher, and I studied a great deal. I was trying to think of a way to explain to people what my experience of the test was like.  I thought of trying to explain it like baking a cake.  The professor said here are eggs, and he did a good job of explaining eggs, and I learned all about eggs, and he said here is sugar, and explained that well, and I learned all about sugar, and he said here is flour, and explained that really really well, and I learned all about flour.  But on the exam, he said, now make a cake--but the analogy breaks down a little because I "sort of" already know how to make a cake--I mean I'd put the flour in the bowl first as a best guess.  But on the exam, I just didn't know what to do first.  I'd start in one direction, then say "No" then go in another direction. 
 
I had lots of blanks.  I just didn't know what to do. Fortunately, because my grades are very high getting a D, if I'm so lucky, is something I can just say "Oh Well" about.  I calculated and even if I get an F, I'll still have like a 3.6.  The bummer is if I get an E and have to repeat it.  Well, I'm definitely thinking hard about only doing two courses this summer.  But first I need to rest and recover.  This was a wipe out.  This morning I felt like I'd been run over by a truck.  I think that was from hunching over the exam for three hours.  Your block party reminds me of something we used to do in Gainesville at this complex I lived in.  On Saturdays one apt. would make "soup" or something like that, and the others of us would drop in when we could.  Then the next Sat. someone else would do it.  It was kind of sixtyish fun.  Elizabeth

[1] The Columbine High School massacre was a school shooting that occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado in which twelve students and one teacher were killed and twenty-one additional people were injured by gunshots.

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