sad story about prof
barret that's pretty depressing. who skips a day-long field trip? that's the type of stuff i spend like the entire class looking forward to! it's good you feel a little guilty though -- i think that's productive. i'm not making any judgments or anything but i'm a student too and i'm constantly surrounded by other students who are checked the fuck out by semester #2 and it kind of gets under my skin i guess. college is ludicrously expensive and probably the one time in your life you'll have access to billions of dollars in resources and countless people who've devoted their entire lives to what they study; it frustrates me a little when i see bros in yolo shirts dragging a dolly of natty lite crates and being seemingly oblivious to how many people dream of the opportunities they have but never end up getting them. sometimes when i'm feeling like a lazy bum i think about this and instead of phoning it in on an assignment i think is Missing The Point or skulking out of class as soon as it's over i'll ask the prof a question about their research and they seem to like that and usually i learn something at least interesting, if not useful.
i empathize with on you the regression tho. nobody tells you you can have grand revelations about your life and behavior and then kinda forget them and go back to being an idiot after a few months.