So I got my grades in today. They're pretty much what I was expecting - and dreading.
I got an A in Spanish. It was my last quarter and I have absolutely loved my teacher. I will miss him very much next year. I also got an A in Art (ok an A- but it's still technically an A). Another good teacher, a first timer for me, but there was a lot of work in the class and I had a few bumps, which I'm sure earned me that '-'. Then there was my marketing class. Ah, what a time suck that was. The teacher was great and I was getting good grades on my tests but there was a group project in this class that was oh so awful. And a particular girl in my group who went beyond awful and straight to 'made-life-a-living-hell'. She alone was the reason I had to stay up for 30+ hrs straight to clean up a mess she made so we didn't fail the project. Even with her, I would have had an A in this class if I'd done better on the final. But my grade on the final caught me completely off guard - a 74%, which pretty much solidified my B+. If I'd gotten just a few points more, I would have had an A- or possibily even an A. And then, my law class. On the surface, this class seemed pretty easy. Lots of reading, a little quiz each week to make sure you were doing the reading, and a 20 page paper at the end. The rest was just a round robin discussion of the topics. I thought I was doing pretty good. Right in the middle as far as participation. Didn't talk the most, but more than others. And I always thought I did pretty good on the quiz's. Lord knows I took like 4 pgs of notes for every reading! The paper kicked my rear, however. I've never had a problem writing a paper before but, then again, I've never taken a law class. Apparently, there are very strict rules. I wrote this paper - no joke - at least 3 times. And each time, I'd get a 'nope, not right' email back with lots of comments from the teacher. And each time I'd go back and find more sources, more information, etc. I was re-writting this thing pretty much right up until the deadline. Overall, I got a B in the class. Not a B+, a B. Why? I don't know. If I did as decent as I thought with the rest, then my paper must have really sucked lemons.
So, those are my grades for the quarter - two A's and two B's. Pretty much an exact match to my first quarter at DU.
It's a pretty sucky way to end my first year - especially because I worked my butt off in the two classes that I earned my B's in. I met with that marketing group a minimum of 2x a week for 3+ hours each time. I spent entire Saturday's looking for new sources for my law paper because my teacher was convinced the sources I found had articles they themselves had written on my topic. I never found any. I would have used them, really, I would have.
So, what can you do when you've already done your best? I honestly cannot think of one thing that I didn't do for those classes - I gave 110% of myself. And I earned B's. Why? I don't know. But I know I did my best. Unfortunately, this time, my best wasn't good enough.
And, just to reiterate, that really, really sucks.