My mind is deteriorating.

I don't know if it's the heightened stress or the lack of sleep I've experienced for the past three months. Whatever it is, I've been thinking and saying some strange things.

• I referred to my yellow-labeled computer disk as my "blonde disk."
• I called this ratty old shirt I own my "scratch shirt."

And once again, I've awoken in the morning to find myself in my bed--with no recollection of how I got there. I was up late working on my portfolio for Communications. At 6 a.m., I decided to take a nap before I finished printing everything. I lay down on the ground in the computer room, and the next thing I knew, I woke up in my bedroom on my bed.

So why am I paying this price of lucid thought? Because I want A's. I need A's! My cumulative GPA is a dismal 2.5 right now. (BIG difference from my 5.42 as a senior in high school...) Lately, I've been hearing a lot about 'blowoff classes' at other universities. I want to know more about this--for instance, why doesn't UH seem to have any? Am I just taking all the wrong classes? It doesn't seem fair.

Correct me if I'm wrong...but doesn't UH have a reputation as some sort of "easy" college? Like, almost as bad as a community college? When I tell people that I go to UH, they either look surprised or unimpressed. It makes me feel terrible. If I'm having so much trouble at "horrible, unchallenging UH," then how would I fare at an Ivy League institution?

I think there are misconceptions about UH. I cower every day in classes where my classmates are my intellectual superiors. The professors toss around things like "Konjunktiv II" and the "Cube-Root Rule," and my classmates reply with insightful comments about Bertolt Brecht or decision costs. There are remarkably brilliant students and faculty at UH. Maybe it was a simple coincidence, but eight of the 17 students in my Human Situation class were National Merit Scholars. Not the faltering "Commended" that I was--these people actually got the scholarship and all.

We may just be numbers to our university, but all my professors know me by name. Of course, I'd much prefer to be the number.

Okay, all you UHers...what do you think? Are my classes just some sort of special case, or do you think UH deserves a little more recognition?

Ah, my pretty hash browns...soon you will be mine! $3.51 and counting...

Must have 5 to reach Second Hash Brown Goal: (five)
I get hash browns! Eventually.

Helen