Self Evaluation of my academic year (2009)

My academic year (2009) has been like a rollercoaster, full of ups and downs. Ups and downs that taught me a lot of important things to carry on with my degree and to look up forward the future. Yes, it’s been only nine months, but it’s enough time to take note of what all this is about, and the direction that will take in some time from now. Now, why it was all ups and downs? That’s the question I’m going to try to answer in the next couple of paragraphs.

When I was told I got into this university, and this degree, anthropology, was the happiest day of my life, but I didn’t know what to expect, I knew it was going to be a whole new world, and it was indeed, but at the time I couldn’t pictured it right.
Now I’m here, and after nine months, I can say a few things about my academic year. I’m going to start with the rollercoaster:
In the beginning was all frightening, I didn’t know how the system was, I wonder how the teachers would be and slowly everything started to be clearer. Nothing was good academically; I felt out of place, like I couldn’t get right what teachers told me in class, my first grades weren’t good at all, and that was my great down in the year. After the first tests results, I get aware of my state, and I needed a change. It was really fast actually, to get into the good way, and in that situation I realized that if I have the guts and the energy to go ahead and make thing right, I would, and it actually happened! I pass the first semester with good grades; I pass all signatures without giving an exam, so it was a self growing time. Now, in this semester the rollercoaster stopped, Everything, it’s been doing right, I’m about to pass all my signatures without exams, my grades aren’t bad and I have grown like I never had.

So, in conclusion, a rollercoaster doesn’t stop its way, but when it does, is in that moment when you stand still to contemplate your progress and your errors, and when you realize the path you’ve pass through , and the place you’re stand in, everything falls in the right place, and you can see that what you’ve done and learnt it’s going to be part of you forever, and will make you go ahead, look forwards the future, and see yourself being whatever you want to be, in my case, as an archaeologist.

well... anthropology.. and the discipline in general... =)

Okay…. It’s not something I would write about but… well… I have to…
My discipline challenges are, in my perspective: to be known… I mean… really known… because every time I answer the hideous question of ‘what’s your degree again?’… And well after I answer ‘Anthropology ’… there’s a big question face looking at me… and when I try to explain what it is… nothing really changes… or they keep questioning shitty things…
In this University technology problems are big… after what I’ve heard, there’s a lot of instrumentation missing that’s essential for a good develop of the discipline… you know… we are studding to be professionals in one (or more) of three areas: Social and physical anthropology and Archaeology …. For the last two, technological instrumentation it’s very important, because we don’t work with people face to face in the essence but we work with death and ancient things, or with alive ones… and for an investigation we need analysis material… that aren’t in the faculty for example… or we can’t have access to them…
In educational terms… this degree it’s barely new in Chile, so nobody can expect it to be perfectly well organized and that what they teach it’s really useful, but we are fighting for this to change… and every year it’s getting better and the programs are well constructed and organized. The problem of education, maybe, in some cases, is the teachers who don’t know how to teach properly, some of them we can’t even understand though we try.
I think I can’t say too much about every problem respecting these matters, but… in the 8-9 months I’ve been here the ones above are some I have note a lot of times, and maybe they can change in a near further future.. I don’t know…
Anyways I love my discipline, because I believe it can do a lot for people if people wants to, and also there’s a lot of things we should know about humans, as humans we are, and about culture.. and mostly about our past.. how do we get where we are it’s the hugest question we should try to resolve… and that’s the one that made me choose this degree =)