Well, That Could Have Gone Better:

 School has been back in session for a week, and I'm feeling very overwhelmed.

It's not so much the volume of work, because that's whatever. It's a lot and it's stressful, but that's what being in school is and I'm pretty used to it at this point.

Most of what's getting to me is the feeling like I'm less than my classmates; that I don't really deserve to be in these classes, that I'm not as smart or well-versed in the world of programming as my peers. I know that this is a bunch of impostor syndrome bullshit. I know that I have the appropriate skills and knowledge base to take on this material. I know that just because I find the material hard doesn't mean that I can't do it, and that I can't do it well. I know that just because I don't live and breathe programming doesn't mean I can't handle a tech career.

I just need to readjust my perspective, to focus on what I can do instead of what that one show-off, know-it-all kid can do. I'll be fine. I've worked really hard to get here, and I can totally do it.

Because I'm super great, dammit.

And you are, too.

 Schools in Portland operate on a strange quarters system. Instead of Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters that are 14-16 weeks long, we get Fall, Spring, Winter, and Summer semesters that are 8-12 weeks long. Which, on one hand, means that I get to cram a whole lot o' learnin' into a shorter period of time. On the other, ow, my social life.

So we have 3 weeks left of our 8 week summer semester. I'd initially planned on having all sorts of free time to do fun things like "go camping!" or "take a road trip!" which mostly just turned in to "sit on the couch and do homework!" which is okay, but kind of oppressive. I've got about a month off between the end of Summer semester and beginning of Fall. We're going to take advantage of that time to do things like "go camping!" and "go to California for a week!", so the summer won't be a complete bust.

I met with the Computer Science advisor at Portland State University on Wednesday. I should be able to be finished by August '16, which feels like forever away right now, but is not actually and is actually packed full of a jillion credit hours per semester and a continued lack of social life, not that I had friends anyway.

The moral of the story is that school is eating my life, but it'll be worth it to not have to work with a bunch of crying people and their dead cats.