I have to say that being a student is a lot more comfortable during balmy fall days, with trees lit up in brilliant colors and beautiful sunsets than it is with snow showers, gusty winds and early dark evenings.  So as I make my way through this first week of classes I try to adjust to leaving campus in the dark and cold, try to get comfortable with standing at a dark bus stop with my hood up, back to the wind. 

The classes are confusing, but I remind myself I felt the same way at the beginning of last semester.  I spoke to my graudate assistant for one of the classes about my fear of math.  It’s been almost 30 years since I took and barely managed to pass my last math class.  I hoped never to see algebra again in my lifetime.  I asked him if algebra had changed much in the last 30 years and he looked at me blankly.  Could be because he’s from India and doesn’t have my sense of humor.  Could be he can’t believe I took algebra 30+ years ago.  He said he couldn’t say if it had changed because he didn’t take high school algebra in this country.  I see his point.  I guess it doesn’t mater if it changed as I didn’t understand it back then anyway.  I told him it would be interesting to see if I could learn it now, and he was encouraging that I probably could, and that he’d help.  Wouldn’t that be amazing, if I found out I could understand something now that was so foreign to me then?  But I don’t have high hopes, as I didn’t understand it when I was trying to study for the GRE, and that was only a year ago!  But I didn’t have a tutor then, nor a support group.  So maybe this will be OK.  I hope.