ah, the days of being a freshman

Tuesday, January 13, 2004, at 10:52AM

By Eric Richardson

This semester I'm making up a few gen-ed classes I passed up when I first started here at USC. I really didn't want to take them the first time through -- so I didn't -- and I really don't desire all too much to take them now.

GE classes aren't like other classes. They think you're a Freshman, so they're strict. Strict attendance policies, mandatory discussion sections, pop quizes... GEs have them all.

I'm in Religions of Asia right now (both for the semester, and as I write this). If you follow that link and click through to the requirements, you'll find that they "tolerate" one discussion section absense. Well isn't that generous...

I used to tolerate being a student. It was one of those things I had to do -- and I guess it still is -- but now I'm just ready to be done. I want to get out into the world, to do something cool.

How am I supposed to do anything cool when I'm stuck in a room on a Wednesday morning with a bunch of freshman talking about the stuff that we've already gone over in the lecture?