New Academic Module

I registered today for a new module in my degree program. It's called DP1 - or Degree Project 1 - and it is the beginning of the end. The assignments are more prescribed and designed to take me through a process of reflection and design, into the final degree project required for graduation.

I like the idea of reflection. I think it speaks highly of the college that they not only recommend, but require, their students to stop and think about what they've learned, to toss it around, to explore the concepts once again and to wonder, on paper, how the learning has changed their lives. My learning has certainly changed my life. It has happened in both large and small ways, and I wonder who I would be now without this experience. I am grateful for the opportunity on many levels - to explore ideas that require me to challenge my mind in ways that I rarely experience. I have explored concepts that are new to me, yet resound deep in the bowels of my existence. Clearly they've been there all along, I just didn't know others had studied the topics and articulated the thoughts I hold so dear.

Now the time has come for me to put it all on the line. That is both daunting and exciting to me. I'm not really nervous about the work of the semester, but I am nervous about how much that work means to me. I can go at it with an attitude of mediocrity, or I can attach a measure of Self into the work, to make it all that it can be. I prefer the latter. I have had a semester off, I have done the work (and joy) of relationships. I won't let those go, but I want very much to use the next year of my life to delve deeply into my mind and my soul. Then, I want to write and to create to the best of my ability - a work for which I can be proud, and one I can put on my own bookshelf for my own heirs.

Let the games begin...