Abroad in Baltimore #23
Midterms, Mayhem, and Madness, Oh My!
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We’re just about halfway through the semester now and this is about the time things start to heat up at art school. Projects get longer, professors get stricter, and everyone who isn’t already dreaming of spring break has begun to count the days. This is a long semester, and spring break is akin to halftime. We get to cool our engines before the push towards the finish line begins in earnest. This year spring break at MICA is a bit later in the semester than I’m used to, starting in Mid-March rather than late February which I’ve chosen to consider a blessing rather than a curse.
While I’ve been lucky in the past to have classes that are mostly classwork intensive, that is not the case this semester. I can’t help but feel my professors this semester are lulling us into a false sense of security before the other shoe drops. It’s common knowledge that finals week in art school is similar to one of those jungle island survival games where (almost) everyone makes it out alive, but this year I’m determined not to get washed up.
I want so badly to prove myself in these illustration classes I fought to get into, and it’s a constant fight to not just stay afloat but also get better with each assignment. It’s put me out of my comfort zone, but I know by the end of the year, it will all have been worth it. Already I can tell I’m leaps ahead of where I was at the beginning of the semester, and it gives me even more motivation to keep marching forward.
Besides enjoying the fruits of my labor, I’ve also been appreciating the MICA social scene. I was very nervous about making friends when I first came to MICA and even more nervous about keeping them going into my second semester. But I’ve been rather lucky to have quite a few familiar faces in multiple classes, ensuring I’m never without someone to text with questions about the homework!
I really underestimated how much of a luxury it is to have friends in your class. PCA is such a tight-knit community, I almost always knew everyone in my classes, but at MICA I’m lucky if I know more than one! That’s been one of the best surprises in coming to MICA, the relatively seamless assimilation into the community and slow but sure growth of a friend group.
This year has absolutely flown by! I feel like I just arrived and now we’re suddenly more than halfway done with the school year. With Spring break tantalizingly close, I am fantasizing about being able to sleep in for a whole week. True luxury is being able to wake up naturally multiple mornings in a row, and since I’ll likely be plunging straight into a (hopefully) full-time internship this summer, I have to savor my lazy mornings where I can.
With the nicer weather seemingly here to stay, I’ve been taking some long walks on my not so busy days. We students tend to treat exams and projects as our cardio, but I’ve found that just 30 minutes outside and moving around really clears my head. I get so busy with school and work, things like diet and exercise start to be pushed to the side, but I’m determined to get myself into healthier habits before summer break.