Are finals next week? Yup.
Should I be studying instead of writing this week’s blog? Uh-huh.
Three guesses as to what I’m doing anyways.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Despite the fact that this week was the high stress period right before finals, I had no choice but to go to the Guardians of the Galaxy premiere. As an extreme Marvel aficionado, I take great pride that I haven’t missed a premiere since I discovered my love of the franchise (which I believe was The Avengers in 2012).

The movie was great, of course. As someone who just recently started to gain a back-end appreciation for film making and video editing, I was really impressed by the credits. I don’t want to give any of the movie away so all I’ll say is that baby Groot is pretty dang cute, the movie is absolutely beautiful, there are so many Easter eggs, and even though it’s by far not my favorite movie they’ve ever made, it’s still really good.

Dippermess

I went to the movies on Thursday night and then Dippermess on Friday. Dippermess is basically a semi-annual fair held in the spring and fall. There are carnival rides, food, booths with games and things for sale, and of course apple wine.

I went with my friend Elisa (the same friend who I stayed with for my Birthday in Italy) to celebrate her birthday; albeit a bit late. We didn’t really ride any rides except the ferris wheel but we ate a lot of food. I had a bratwurst and cotton candy and we ended up also splitting peach wine, and a Nutella crepe. It was a great break from studying and a nice way to celebrate her birthday without taking up too much study time.

Finals Prep

Like I said earlier, it’s the week before finals. I’ve been studying but if I’m totally honest with you all, I haven’t been studying as much as I could have and definitely not as much as my classmates have been. Between my poor performance last semester and subsequently poor GPA, and the fact that all of my classes this semester had some portion of the grade filled by group work, there is little incentive to kill myself studying for these tests.

There is no way that I will ever be able to raise my grade point average to the point of being competitive with my fellow classmates. Couple this with the fact that I’ve already technically passed two of my classes with the points earned from group work and really I only need to do mediocre on the tests. Of course doing very well cannot hurt but the overall impact on my GPA in the end will end up being a “declining marginal utility” sort of function.

In the end, I just want to get the degree and start my career. I think I have officially decided that pursuing a Master of Finance was a mistake in regards to my interests (I probably would have been much happier in an MBA or Master in Management program). It’s sure to pay off in other ways but I don’t think I will end up competing with other Finance graduates on the job market based on where my career interests lie which alleviates some pressure.

As always, all is revealed in hindsight. I have ultimately just decided not to kill myself over my finals and my grades this semester. Hopefully in the future I will take courses that suit my aptitudes better and will be easier to do well in to help bring up my GPA. For now, all things considered, I am content with just keeping my head above water.