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Course request season and why I love it

Ava Bruni Student Contributor, Virginia Tech
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Virginia Tech chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

This time of the semester always drags on. No matter how much I like my classes or what I do in my free time, things start to get a little boring. I start to procrastinate a lot more and even things I typically like to do start feeling like obligations. You’d think spring break would help with this, but it really doesn’t. It just makes me want the semester to end more. The bipolar weather isn’t helping much either (is being constantly in the high 60s and sunny too much to ask for?). And I’m saying this as someone who genuinely enjoys school most of the time. I get to study what I want at the school that I like, but still, morale is low.

But what does rejuvenate my spirits a little bit—and hear me out—is somehow course request. Something about the anticipation of it, the suspense, is really exciting. It’s like academic Christmas. Like when I saw a course request came out early this semester, I immediately logged into the timetables on my phone. Embarrassing, I know. And every time, without a doubt, I open the timetable and I am met with the most mediocre selection of classes.

There are a lot of things that go into this, to be honest, one, the absolute lack of classes I need to take, two, the only three classes that are actually there that I need to take are all offered at the exact same time (and that time is 9 a.m.), and three, my schedule (which I keep telling myself will magically give me a break on Fridays) has me on campus for at least eight hours a day, five days a week. I can’t really complain about the last one—that is how school works, unfortunately—but the other two have been happening consistently for the past four semesters.

I’m an English major, and if you’re unfamiliar with the liberal arts, most of the time this is only one section of a class a lot of people need to take, with about 20-35 seats offered. There’s really not a lot of wiggle room while building your schedule. It always ends up working out, though, so really no (additional) complaints from me.

Now that my schedule for next semester has been planned out, I genuinely have felt more motivated to finish this semester strong. The excitement of new classes and the fall semester in general is enough to push me to the end.

Ava Bruni

Virginia Tech '27

Ava is a sophomore at VT studying English & Creative Writing with a minor in Classical Studies. She mainly writes fiction, with a special interest in the surreal and absurd. Her absolute favorite place in the world is the beach in the summertime, sitting on a chair with a book in her hand.