Thursday, August 30, 2012

College Girl

Sorry I haven't updated more recently, but this week has been my first starting classes at Texas Woman's University.  It's been awesome, though occassionally frustrating, but all-around a great experience and even relevant to the subjects of this blog.  Why?  Because I'm at Texas Woman's University.  Now, just to clarify, while the college was once exclusively for women they have allowed men for at least a decade.  However, the campus is still 90% women.  It's so skewed that I've started playing a game called "Spot the Boy".  It's like Where's Waldo.

That being said, being surrounded by other women is so different from all of my educational history.  The majority of my professors are women (and not grad students, go me) and I think I can count the number of male students in all my classes on one hand.  What's so fascinating about this is class discussions are completely different from what I'm used to.  In nearly all of my previous classes, I was one of few women who spoke on a regular basis in class.  (Anyone who knows me knows I'm never afraid to give my opinion or share the answer to a question.)  Most class discussions were dominated by men and I'm sure the teachers and professors didn't even notice.  But here, I don't feel like a know-it-all just because I'm a girl who answers the professors.  Here it's the norm!

I must admit, I was slightly worried about attending a nearly-all women's school because I haven't had the best history of friendship with other women (unless they're queer and/or godless) because I have a low tolerance for passive-aggressive behavior.  But it seems as though having practically nothing but women has had almost a reverse effect from my previous experiences of being in all-girl situations.  Maybe it's because there are no boys being fought over (most of the ones here are gay) the girls here have learned to chill out on the catiness.  Or maybe we're just all the girls who had trouble making friends with girls growing up, kind of like roller derby.  Either way, it's a very refreshing environment and I absolutely love it here.

For those interested, I'm taking Abnormal Psychology, Professional Development in Psychology, Applied Statistics, and Ethics.  Except for Ethics, all of my classes are speciffically for Psych majors.  It's so nice to only take classes relevant to my future occupation.  And the Professional Development class seems especially useful; it's designed to help us plan our careers, including preparing for grad school.  It looks like there will be more homework and it will probably be more difficult, but I'm ready and excited for the semester.

I'll try my best to write another blog entry over the weekend, however we're getting ready to move to a new apartment so don't be surprised if I don't have time.  I look forward to your feedback.  Take care!

2 comments:

  1. I do not know any transgender people and have never met anyone I was aware was transgender. I am very interested in getting more information on being transgender in order to be less ignorant and non-offensive. I am aware now that the proper pronoun for a trans-person is the sex that they present themselves as. I always found trans-women and trans-man confusing because I was never sure which one was which. I was wondering if you can recommend any good sites or if maybe you could do a blog post yourself on the subject of myths or misconception and proper etiquette. There are many ignorant people out there who don't want to be. Some of things I wonder are... How are gay men different from trans-women because some gay men are very feminine and like women's clothes? Are trans-women all feminine because as a women myself I don't like dresses or makeup so maybe trans-women don't necessarily like those things either? Also I think your blog could use a way to contact you directly through e-mail.

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  2. That sounds like a great idea for a new post! Thanks anonymous, look for some clarification coming soon!

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