I major in Media Studies and I sat through a Systems Engineering class

Before I got to the UVA, I thought very highly of mathematics and other academic disciplines which required systematic problem solving.

Hell, I even enjoyed calculus in high school, but one class and many arduous problem sets later, I decided Media Studies seemed like a sufficient alternative.

However, I still had a sense of curiosity as to what a world without film classes and daily chats about Instagram profiles was like. So I journeyed into the unfamiliar world of Systems Engineering to take a look.

Class: Deterministic Decision Models

3.30

I find a seat next to a friend and watch as someone walks in, turns in the homework, and promptly exits the room.

3.35

The professor begins the lecture late and starts talking about the complexity of a tree. How complex can a tree be? This isn’t biology.

3.37

The professor is just drawing a bunch of letters and numbers and circling them. Is this the tree?

3.40

The professor starts drawing lines between the circles and he’s telling us we’re “analyzing flow” now. I’m suddenly thinking about analyzing different hairdos.

3.42

There are some pretty attractive people in this class. Go Hoos for brains and looks.

3.45

So we are actually studying the “conservation of flow.” I’m still confused about what the flow is and keep picturing really nice hair.

3.47

Prof just said he made a mistake on the presentation. He’s just as clueless as I am.

3.48

Now there’s a slide with two orange clouds. What happened to the circles? Why are these clouds orange? Why does this class raise more questions than answers?

3.52

The professor has turned off the projector and started telling a story about how his college roommate made a killing with bit coins.

4.05

This class is more effective than Ambien.

4.12

After looking at the board, I begin to wonder if solving this diagram is anything like Sudoku. My friend sitting next to me tries to explain that “it’s like a puzzle”. Maybe this isn’t so hard.

4.13

Just kidding. This is hard.

4.18

A girl shamelessly passes out in a reclined position in her seat. Do your thing, girl.

4.22

Now the professor is explaining a problem and his example is sandwich delivery by drone. I am both fascinated by this notion and have developed a hankering for Take It Away.

4.28

The professor asked a question and the closest thing to a response was the sleeping girl transitioning to more of a I’m-going-to-sit-up-and-close-my-eyes-so-I can-look-like-I’m-doing-something position.

4.35

At this point, I look at my friend’s notes and realize that I am in a very unknown world.

4.40

Update: Sleeping girl is awake.

4.41

The teacher asks the class another question to which nobody responds. Teacher chimes back with a “You guys are just totally enchanted by this, aren’t you?” I know I am.

4.45

The teacher asks for everyone to stay for five extra minutes and I hear a collective sigh flow (not like in a chart) throughout the room.

4.50

I leave thanking myself that I never did anything related to engineering.