So this past Sunday I finished my U.S. History class, and those of you who know me just KNOW that I absolutely hate U.S. History. This course was early U.S. History up until the Civil War, and the final project was to create a timeline of events that led up to the war, and an essay that explained the timeline. I worked on it for several days right up until about 12:45am Monday morning, leaving only 15 minutes to submit the assignment for a grade. Again I told myself that it wasn’t good enough, but since I had no time left I had to submit it.

Anyway, the paper was worth 200 points and with having turned in a few assignments late while I was sick, I needed a good grade on this paper to be sure I was able to get a decent grade. What I turned in at 12:45pm was what I basically had done by 10:00 Sunday night, but thinking it wasn’t good enough I kept trying to add more to it, or changing this or that to make it better. Unfortunately, I found out today that I had submitted the copy I had saved at 10:00 so all the changes I made in the following hour and 45 minutes were not even seen by my instructor – I felt like such a dumb ass.

Then today I get my grade – 185 out of 200, and what I lost points on were NOT items addressed during that wasted time late Sunday night. So again I have been reminded that I am too critical of my work. I guess in the future I need to write enough to satisfy the requirements and not second guess, since EVERY single final I have done since starting school has been about the same. Each time I submit a final I think to myself “you should have taken more time and done a better job”.  Then I get the grade and always seem surprised when I get a higher grade then I expected.

Oh, and for the record, the final grade for the class was an A-, the very FIRST time in my entire life I have earned higher than a C in any History class. To date, I have three A’s, two A-’s and 1 B- and my cumulative GPA stands at 3.67. Now I have the rest of this week off before starting my next block of classes, AED201: Teaching as a Profession and HUM205: World Culture and the Arts. I was supposed to take the Humanities class in my last block but withdrew from the class when I could not afford the $110 for the required textbook, which arrived today. Wish me luck!