Today is the first day of my winter break, and—other than being horribly sick—I’m really enjoying it. It’s nice to have time to sit back, relax, and not have to worry about what’s due or reading or studying. In fact, it’s weird to realize that I don’t have school for a month now. Like, what am I supposed to do with all this time?

This semester definitely sucked up all the time I had available, so leaving Savers was a good idea. Between weekly reading 15-60 pages for History, 90-350 pages for Screenwriting, 20-30 pages for Linguistics, and 20-400 pages for Core Humanities I’m surprised I had time to do other things. That’s not including the weekly discussions, quizzes, homework, assignments, essays, and the extreme pressure of writing a screenplay in just a few months. I would definitely say that this semester has been the toughest workload wise, but I’m not going to say that it was the toughest emotionally or mentally.

The surprise best-class-ever of the semester was Linguistics where I learned more about phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. To most people that sounds like the worst kind of torture, but thanks to an amazing professor, a great textbook, and a genuine interest in the subject I learned a lot and enjoyed every moment of it. I’ve applied more of the stuff that I’ve learned in this class to everyday life than I would’ve thought possible. I’m excited to continue on next semester and continue studying syntax with the same professor.

My first-ever history course at the university level was not as bad as I imagined it would be. I definitely learned a lot about America’s foreign policy with Asia that I didn’t know, and I was happy that the work level was not too difficult compared to other classes I’ve taken. There were some things about the class that I didn’t like too much, but overall it was interesting and I got to write my first paper in the Chicago Style. (I’ll admit that creating footnotes was weirdly addictive).

I AM DONE FOREVER WITH CORE HUMANITIES. This is a required course for everyone who goes to a Nevada university, and it’s basically a history/literature/art class that goes over classic things and analyzes them. Due to a previous failure to deal with an in-person class I took this online, and it was fun. My professor had a real interest in the subject and the discussions with my classmates were great fun. It also gave me a reason to finally read Frankenstein for the first time! This was a class that was a little tough to keep up with at times, but I managed to power through and work my way to a B- overall.

Now, for the let-down. When I heard that the English department was offering a class focusing on screenwriting I jumped on the opportunity. I dropped a class and jumped right into it, but… It definitely wasn’t what I wanted it to be. First off by the end of the semester we only had eleven people in the class—which for a workshop is tiny. Plus the professor’s general lack of enthusiasm meant that the students didn’t have any either. The organization was terrible and constantly bugged me, but the great thing about this class was that it forced me to write a screenplay. I’m not saying KEEPSAKE (my horror movie) is ever going to get made, but I can at least say I’ve written a full-length screenplay. And that’s something.

I’m eagerly waiting for my final grades to get posted, but I’m happy with how I did this semester. I could have done better, but I’m proud of myself for passing all my classes with good grades (no D this semester!), keeping up with the material and not procrastinating as much, actually getting to know another professor in the English department, and for staying on track to graduate in a year.

So, fingers crossed, 2016 will be an incredible conclusion to my undergraduate career.