Can't have everything, Part II

[cjsmith]

Another thing I won't be doing because of classes is watching a shuttle launch.

OK, it's not 100% clear that there would have been a guest pass for me. One was offered to Rob; there may or may not have been another available. But we could have asked. So I thought about it. If I could get on a redeye, I'd miss only bio lecture and Spanish class. Sadly, the redeyes to Orlando from here tend to land a couple of hours after the scheduled launch time. Well, what if there were a flight departing in the afternoon? I'd have to miss bio lab as well, which is starting to get really shaky; total hours spent in lab are part of an inter-school curriculum agreement, so missing those is a real problem. But I could ask my bio professor... if there were afternoon flights! There aren't! So I'd have to take a morning flight, and the chemistry prof made his lab policy clear on day one: if I miss even one chemistry lab during the quarter, I flunk the class. OK. No shuttle launch.

This is something I kind of had in the back of my head as "one of the gazillion things I want to do before I die": watch a launch, shuttle or otherwise. And I don't know how much longer shuttles are going to be launching. But this time won't be the one.

If I'm honest, I can't truly blame this one entirely on school. This has been a theme in my life for decades. I've always had this job thing. I've always needed this job thing in order to eat and pay rent. The number of fun trips Rob has been on without me is painful to contemplate. Some day, I swear, I will be the kind of person who can GO DO STUFF. It may take time; it may not happen until well after graduation; but some day, some day, I'll go.

Comments

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Um, can you try talking to the professor?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I could, yeah. (Keeping in mind that every one of my professors this quarter is bending over backwards for me already by rescheduling a final exam.) Also I'd need to ask the person who had the first guest pass. And come up with plane money. It's not 100% impossible at this point, just unlikely.

[leback.livejournal.com]

It seems like the sort of thing about which a science professor really might say "Yes, by all means, go, and tell me all about it!" On the other hand, they might think "Hey, if I can't see a shuttle launch, neither can she!"

Maybe you could make up the lab by writing an extra-credit report on the chemistry of space-shuttle launching. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

There's a photograph of a space shuttle launch in our chemistry textbook, and it's even in the chapter we're doing! I should totally schmooze this. :-)

[leback.livejournal.com]

Pity you can't get an extra pass for your professor. -- that'd probably be an A+++ in the course right there!

If the shuttle launch stuff is particularly relevant to the chapter material, maybe instead of an extra-credit report, you could put together a presentation -- spend half an hour or so of class time showing pictures, describing the launch, and explaining some researched materials on the science that this mission will be doing, and the relevance of chemistry to the space program. Lots of instructors really love having other people fill class time for them. :-)

(I am sort of thinking about this by analogy to a political science class -- I knew some people in my department who missed classes last November because they were off doing things like get-out-the-vote, and I think any political science professor who penalized them for that would have been *insane*. I think the same thing happened this quarter, with people going off to Washington for inaugural festivities -- I know one professor even cancelled class because *she* had tickets to the inauguration itself.)