Old Dog, New Tricks

I've been feeling overwhelmed by school, and it's barely been a month since classes began. I thought about why I felt so swamped, and I realized that aside from signing up for 15 credit hours (the usual full-time grad school load per semester is only 9 credit hours), the classes I've signed up for all entail learning new computer programs and many other skills. For my photojournalism class, for example, there are so many skills I need to learn, and fast. Composing shots, knowing how my camera works and how to make good use of light, telling a story through your pictures, etc. But on top of these basic skills any photojournalist needs to learn, I also need to learn Photoshop and InDesign, which I am only vaguely familiar with.

Then for my mapping for journalists class, I need to learn to use a mapping software called ArcView which enables you to plot a lot of information onto a map. And for my work at globaljournalist.org , I've been assigned the task of webmaster (lord knows why, since I know next to nothing about webmastering), and so I have to learn how to use Dreamweaver. ARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!

My poor brain can only take so much. Maybe if I got exposed to all these programs when I was in college (and much younger), it would have been a breeze to learn them all. Instead, I'm learning them now, when my brain cells have been diminished in number by various toxic substances, and the synapses are no longer what they were. I have to almost plod along until my brain somehow absorbs the information.

Despite my awareness that my mind just isn't what it used to be, I am happy that I am still able to learn at all. Not as quickly as I would've been able to years ago, but nonetheless, it remains quite a feat that this old dog is still able to learn some newfangled tricks.