Chapter 8.3: About the successes, and the failures

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From Rowan's diary

I've been living here for about six months already, but I would say I'm just starting to get used to this new routine. It's tough, no doubt about it, but the issue isn't the study workload, nor the soccer practice. No, the ones I really struggled to understand were the other students.

For one thing, who could ever have had the idea of ​​tanning our statue in this way? It took me a while to clean it up, that's what.

Juno: Hi Rowan, here you are! Are you still studying?

Rowan: The final exams are approaching, you know.

Juno: But tonight everyone will be out to celebrate the end of lessons, don't you want to join us?

I was so shocked by the question that I couldn't answer immediately. Was she really asking me to go wasting my time in a noisy pub, when I still have so many chapters to memorize before the finals? Was she serious?

Rowan: Don't be silly, if I want a good GPA I have to focus on the program. Rather, are you sure you really have so much time to waste? How do you think to pass the finals, at this rate?

Juno: I-I'm sorry, I just wanted to... (Shaking her head) Well, never mind. Have a good time, see you.

This said, she left without saying anything else. Thinking about it, she's often around at all, and in particular she never brought here Francis again since that unfortunate episode during the very first week of the semester. From what she said, it had been quite embarrassing also for them, so now they prefer to spend their time elsewhere. Being alone here for most of the time is definitively a bonus for me, it makes it so much easier to focus and study.

However, I can't avoid noticing some details. For instance, I'm not sure she slept at all the last night, because when I woke up (at 7 am, as usual) I found her already busy finishing some assignments. Maybe she isn't totally unaware of the amount of work required to pass the final exams, after all.

Juno: (yawning) Oh, good morning Rowan. Since you study law, do you know anything about taxation laws, by chance? It would really help me a lot!

Rowan: Well, in theory we should study it thoroughly in a couple of semesters, but I've already looked into it myself. What do you need it for?

Juno: You see, I have to write an essay about the difference between direct and indirect taxation, and I wanted to ask someone if what I wrote could make sense...

Rowan: Wait, which major did you enrol to? Why do you have to take a taxation law exam?

Juno: (yawning) I'm studying economics, but I also chose to take a few other courses that intrigued me. Even though this turned out to be a lot more boring than I thought, how can you study stuff like this all the time?

I would never do someone else's homework, just as I would never let them copy it, but she was just asking me for some help. There isn't anything wrong about it, right? And then I still had a few spare minutes in my schedule, too.

So I took the paper that she handed me, and gave it a quick read. There were a lot of erasures and punctuation errors, the kind of mistakes you make when writing something too quickly without proofreading, but most of the content seemed correct to me. There were also a couple of rather interesting ideas, but which would have required much more time to be fully developed.

Rowan: It's not bad as a draft, with content like this you can easily get to a B. You should just take some time to reread it, type it on your laptop, and then you should be fine to go.

Juno: Oh, that's nice! I'm not sure I have enough time to do everything, I have to hand this and the statistics project in by lunchtime, but I can at least try... If I'm not mistaken you wanted to follow a seminar today instead, right? Thanks for your help, then.

Rowan: You're welcome.

So I said goodbye and left to go to the seminar, already focusing on my plan for the rest of the day. Most people seem to think I study all day long, but I also want to find time to continue participating in the debate group. And I didn't want to be just any member, I wanted to stand out. Even if day by day it became more difficult to keep up with my opponents...

???: Yet, all the major crises of recent years can be traced back to the reckless actions of New Sixam, the lastest example being the robots revolt. At first you invented the robots, sold them to all the other nations in the world and then made them dependent on those technologies for their production, and then let the robots abandon the planet to go who knows where? Too many times your so-called technological revolutions have tricked us, we should no longer allow this to happen again.

Rowan: It should be clear to everyone as the example brought on by my opponent is just a lazy example of cherry-picking. For instance, this thesis deliberately focuses on the negative example of robots, but excludes the potential of teleportation technology in moving goods and people, as well as the environmentally friendly energy source provided by stellar core electrical plants. Also, by pointing to the recent departure of the robots to reach the planet Sixam, my opponent is purposely ignoring the well-known reasons they gave to explain their actions. Otherwise, they should know as much as I do that the sixamians were as much to blame for their discontent as all the other earthlings, without exception.

??? : But…

These debates often become exhausting, especially when I end up in the position of the one who has to defend New Sixam politics against these snobbish brats. I feel like what I'm saying is well explained and easy to follow, why does it seem so hard for them to follow me then?

The debate that day had been particularly tiring and frustrating, every day I become more convinced that the distrust towards us will only make everything even more complex than I had anticipated.

And the day was still far from over: I still had to meet the rest of the soccer team for the day's practice (a five-kilometres run, all around campus), before heading to the library and studying some more.

Rowan: Ready to go?

???: I haven't slept for two nights in a row for studying, how could I have the strength to run?

Rowan: Well, you should plan your days a bit better then. In order to remain in the team it is also important to sleep, even during exam week.

? ?: You're brutal sometimes, you know Miller?

? : (yawning) But we're winning a lot of games since we let him decide what to do.

Maybe the rest of the team didn't really like me, but it was natural for me to take back a position resembling the latest one I had in the scouts group. According to some people I was making them work too hard, but it is now clear to everyone that this new rhythm was allowing us to win way more often than we used to.

Nobody ever gives anything away, if you want to achieve important results you always have to work hard. Being good or gifted for a given activity doesn't really matter, if you're slacking off all day.

I was very tired when I arrived at the library, less than an hour before closing, but I still had to borrow a couple of books to bring at the dorm.

Juno: Coffee prism power, make up! It's not time to fall asleep yet!

I was quite surprised to see that Juno was still busy studying, and not out doing I-don't-know-what-she's-usually-doing.

Evidently, her tactic to get through the exams week was to have fun until the penultimate week of the semester, and then to study 24 hours a day in the very last days before the exams. I have the distinct impression that this way she's just doubling the required efforts for mediocre results, but whatever.

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I know it's none of my business, and that I shouldn't waste my time writing useless lines in my diary. However, to add some details to my last entry, I think I'm starting to understand better who's the person Juno learnt her study routine from.

Francis: Haven't you finished yet? The others have been waiting for us for ages now!

Juno: But I haven't finished here yet, and tomorrow I have the statistics exam, and...

Francis: No one ever passes that exam anyway, why do you care so much?

Juno: What if I couldn't afford to fail exams, instead? I really risk losing my scholarship if I don't pass enough exams, and for sure my parents won't pay to cover my tuition!

Francis: There's no need to get angry, come on...

Juno: (taking a deep breath) Sorry, it's that I'm just a little stressed I think... But I still have to finish studying this, I'm serious.

Francis: (annoyed) Okay, if you put it that way, I'm probably better to get going on my own then.

Francis really seems like a first-class slacker, when he's around it becomes more difficult for all of us to concentrate because of all his talking. Sometimes I wonder how he managed to get to his third year in college...

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So, after weeks of intensive studying, we arrived at the exhausting exams week. It's raining today, even though it's almost winter. Too bad, I had heard that at this latitude this period of the year should be quite snowy, I was curious to see snow at least once while I'm here.

We all worked very hard in this exams session, in the dorm I saw more than one person falling asleep on the sofa in the common areas. I can't deny that it's tiring, but that doesn't seem like a good reason to slow down to me.

The results arrived quickly, no one was too surprised when I was told that I got all A+. I had to work quite hard, but everything was going according to plan. I just had to keep up with the pace, that's all.

But not everyone seemed as enthusiastic as me about their results, not at all.

Juno: (sad) Hi Rowan, I heard you got the best marks in all your exams. Well, congratulations.

Rowan: Thank you. What about you, instead?

Juno: several Cs, a B and... and I failed statistics, I'll have to repeat the course the next semester, I think.

Rowan: Oh. I am sorry to hear that.

Juno: (sad) If I don't manage to pass it this time, I'll lose my scholarship and then I would be obliged to leave, this university is too expensive to stay without it! But what can I do now?

I didn't know exactly what to say to her, so I just didn't say anything. But, after seeing her studying so hard in the last few weeks, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her failure too.

I'm torn, generally I try to avoid meddling in these matters. But I think I may be able to help her, if she accepts my help, I mean. What do you think I should do, dear diary?

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