One of the most magical parts of college is the ability to make your own decisions for most, if not all, things related to yourself. I enrolled in five classes this semester: Elementary Italian, Acting 1, my First-Year Seminar, Twelfth Night (a Theater Department performance that I am receiving four credits for) and Calc B: Derivatives/Integrals.

For the most part, I have thoroughly enjoyed all five of my classes. However, the classes I chose did not wind up being perfect. I chose to enroll in Calc B because it came easily to me in high school and I truly thought I was prepared to tackle it at the college level. After three months, eight quizzes and two cumulative exams, it became clear that Calc was simply not going to work out.
 
I was initially worried about dropping the class; what if I didn’t have enough credits? what if it was too late? what if dropping it negatively affected my GPA? I immediately took action after leaving my second exam. I voiced my concerns to my advisor and he informed me that my GPA would remain unchanged, but I would receive a ‘W’ on my transcript. I was also told that I needed a signature from my advisor, my dean...and my Calc teacher.
 
No matter how good of a relationship you have with your teacher, it is never fun to have to ask them to drop their class. They might take it personally. In my case, I simply was not destined for calculus. I don’t even want to major in anything close to Math; I want to major in Theater and possibly double-major in Italian.
 
Anyway, I went to my teacher and expressed my concerns, and she understood. I told her I had reached a point where I thought it would be better if I dropped the class. I got her signature and dropped my form off at the registrar’s office. In the end, I learned more from calculus than derivatives and integrals, I learned about myself. I think it is always beneficial to check in with your advisor for the best guidance on succeeding throughout the semester.