Actually, it occurred to me a few days ago...
These recent post numbers are actual years in my life.
I thought it would be fun to tell you about some of the things that happened to me in 1987. Or not. You decide.
It was my last full year of university. I was taking a full load of courses from January to April. One of those courses was taught by Dr. Rick Giles at Acadia University, who's retiring this very month, by the way. It was the same course where one of the students died in a car crash about half way through the semester. I was having my wisdom teeth extracted the week this happened, and was out of it for a few days, so I didn't hear about it until I got back to classes a week later. Yes. Joanne Strum was a nice person.
That Spring I accepted a job with the Cape Breton Coal Research Laboratory in Sydney, Nova Scotia. I had never been to Sydney in my life. I was soon acquainted with "Smooth Herpes", but the highlight for me, as sad as this sounds, was that I could rent 6 movies at a particular video store and get change back from a 5 dollar bill. I bought my first vcr that summer. This was back when they were fairly pricey. Of course, they no longer exist except in my home.
That Fall, I began my final semester of university. I was taking... 4 courses, I think it was. Two language courses and two courses to fulfill my degree requirements. One of those courses was easily one of the hardest one I had to take, ever. 9 people out of 35 or so failed it outright. I got a B or a B+, but I had to work my a-hole off to get it. I was discussing that course with Dr. Giles last Fall when I ran into him at Superstore. I told him how hard the course had been (another professor had taught it). I told that I had been called upon zero times in my life to use any of the skills I developed by taking the course. He told me he had spoken to another former student not long before who had extolled the virtues of that course. Go figure.
Final exams that year were grueling, but the final exam in that course I'm alluding to, after all the work I had done up to that point, felt anti-climactic. The questions were all very straight forward. If you had done all the work you should have in the term, and learned the stuff they wanted you to learn, then you would have agreed with my assessment of that exam. Despite failing an earlier mid-term, I did well on nearly all of the other assignments and got a good mark on the final to end up with a pretty good mark overall. Of course, as I mentioned, 9 people failed it. Some of those folks were pretty smart but they hadn't done the work.
I enjoyed my Christmas mostly because I was done with my formal studies. It just remained for me to find a job in 1988. I would not be able to graduate until the May Spring Convocation. I would be jumping the gun on other students who would have to study that Winter semester, and be able to seek employment.
But, would I find a job? Would I be able to start paying off my student loans? Would my decrepit car last me much longer?
Well, that's a story for 1988, isn't it?
See you tomorrow.
Bevboy
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