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I'll openly admit, my class attendance is
complete garbage. The first semester was rough, the second
semester I might as well have dropped off the face of the earth.
Dragging my butt to a one-hour lecture, three days a week, was
seemingly the closest thing to hell that I knew. Okay, that’s an
exaggeration. Sort of. I know I’m not alone in this, though.
I see you, person in the back of the class, I know you don’t
know what’s going on. I bet you haven’t even unwrapped your
textbook. I bet you didn’t know that we had a midterm today.
It’s okay though, neither did I. We can fail in solidarity.

I wasn’t always like this, you know. I once had
perfect attendance. I once didn’t depend on caffeine like
it was the only source of pleasure. I once had morals about
showing uplate, oratall forthat matter. Inhighschool, Imight’ve
been what one would call a “nerd.” I like being liked by my
teachers. It’s this sense of pride that no one else can hand to
me. A teacher’s pet, maybe. A straight-A student?

Definitely. ;

This Can-Do attitude transcended throughout
my trades program I had taken a couple years after high
school graduation. When I reminisce about my days in the
Professional Cook program, I think about waking up at the
crack of dawn, rarely having time to squeeze in a shower, and

speeding my little Kia all the way down foothills, just to barely

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make it on time for a 7am start. Monday- Friday, add that to
working 30 hours a week at a restaurant, exercising, and still
somehow, I managed to have the most rambunctious social
life I had had since high school. My attendance was nearly
flawless, and I didn’t even drink that much coffee. How did I
do it, you ask? Am Ia superhuman? Perhaps. But there may be
a more the logical answer to things.

I have learned the hard way that attendance is what
will make (or break) your grades in this college. Word of
advice, do not rely on Moodle. Professor’s love giving away
secret details during that cannot be found beyond the
confines of the classroom. Sometimes Moodle is not available
at all, which can work, but often leaves students with poor
attendance hanging. Sometimes I think I'd be better off taking
online courses.

I know this sounds like I am beginning to defend
students and their bad grades, but that’s not quite what I’m
getting at. This has become a more personal mystery for
me. I am attempting to get to the bottom of how I managed
to go from super-human, to stressed-ridden, perpetually
exhausted, broke student with the simple switch of programs.

My first theory starts with the fact that during the
cooking program if I wasn’t there, people definitely noticed. In

a class of twenty-four, if one cook didn’t show up, things fell

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