If you can't work within the system, you're screwed

It is quarter after five on a Tuesday afternoon. I (Erica) came home for lunch and ended up taking a nap instead of going back to work. Oops. Don't worry, I will use legitimate leave time, and it was kind of slow day. I'm definitely not planning on making this a habit.

Greg is taking a math test. This is the third test he has taken since last Saturday. The Chemical Engineering major is brutal that way. I think Greg spends more time testing in one week than I spent testing in my entire college career. I think he spends more time testing in one week than I spent on homework in my entire college career. Okay, those statements are obviously hyperbole, but, really? We have a theory about this. It is cheaper for BYU and easier for a professor to send students to the testing center for hours upon hours week after week (in some of his math classes, Greg has taken six three or four-hour tests in one semester!) than it is to put the staff and other resources into hands-on learning and accountability measures. It's the same reason that the classes are huge and the hoope of getting one-on-one help futile. I guess you get what you pay for.

There are a couple of major problems with this system, especially for someone like Greg. Greg is truly one of the smartest people I know. Unfortunately for us, he has a very different learning style than most college students. His learning style is about application and doing. It's about the concrete, the here-and-now, the "why does this matter?" It boggles his mind that PhD students in the Chemical Engineering program spend their time analyzing the molecular makeup of shale oil as opposed to crude oil just so they can write a wordy, technical and flat out boring paper about it. He thinks they are working backwards. Why not pose a problem first (ie. how can we make our energy usage more efficient as a result of the differences in shale oil compared to crude oil?) and then work to find the answer? This is why he's going to discover and/or invent something that will change the world someday. Because he is a problem solver and he has a freaky understanding of how things work.

This brings me to my next point, the work vs. GPA paradox. That is, in order to land a top job in the Chemical Engineering industry, you need experience, but you also need good (i.e. stellar) grades. But, in order to get stellar grades you need to not work and therefore not have any experience.

The solution? For the next two months (and probably the next year) we will be putting a significant portion of Greg's monthly paycheck toward a tutor so he can get through BYU's math system without completely demolishing his GPA. I mean, I guess I should look on the bright side. He does make good money doing what he does so at least we can afford it.

I have more to say, but this post is getting really long, so I will continue it later.

Apology

We're still working on the whole picture thing, so I apologize once again for boring blog with not much to look at.

Catching the Vision

I think Greg and I have had at least five friends tell us that we need a blog... so guys, here it is. The contents of this blog will be limited to our activities/adventures and its purpose will be to update friends, family (and strangers, I guess) on what Greg and Erica Hone are up to. I plan to set up another blog, on which I will post observations and commentary about whatever topic I happen to be considering that day. I don't plan to include any of that crap (which tends to create divisiveness among friends) in these posts. Although this blog belongs to both Greg and myself, I highly doubt you can expect to ever see a post written by the former. His typical excuse is that "he'll do (insert activity here) when he graduates." The fact of the matter is, I still haven't been able to convince him to embrace Facebook, so I'm sure blogging will be just as unappealing to him -- graduated or not. The other thing I realized when I caught the vision of blogging about our life was that I am going to have to be better about taking pictures of what we're up to -- something that I've never been very good at. A blog is just so darn boring without something visual.

I really do hope that you enjoy taking this journey with us and look forward to sharing in your lives, as well.