𦿠Chapter 1½: Walking Between Chapters
A new hip, a pop quiz, and learning (again) how to learn.
đ Hey friendsâlong time, no post. In Chapter 1: School Was My First Trauma, I said Chapter 2 would be âThe Day My World Collapsed.â It will be. That piece is about my son, and it deserves the room (and steadiness) to tell it right.
This post is Chapter 1½âthe little footbridge between surviving school and telling the hardest story I have.
𦾠The titanium back-to-school plan (do not recommend)
A few days before the semester, I upgraded to a new hip.
10/10 do not recommend major surgery as your âsyllabus weekâ stretch goal.
Week 1: crutches.
Week 4: cane.
By mid-October: walking on my ownâmostly upright, occasionally heroic.
I completely underestimated the energy toll. Physical therapy became my first class of the day; philosophy came second. I pushed until my body pushed backâtwo weeks sick, missed lecturesâand I made the hard call to drop one class. That stung. Sometimes learning means knowing when to let something go.
Quick PSA đŹ: if youâre ever in rehab, stick with PT. Itâs humbling. It hurts. It works. I wouldnât be crossing campus without it.
đ§ Pop quizzes & working memory (a comedy in 15 minutes)
Early on, my professor announced an in-class pop quiz: 15 minutes, handwritten, essay-style definitions. I looked down at the paper and laughed. It takes me 15 minutes just to warm up my brain and remember what century Descartes lived in.
Part age, part wiring. Iâve always processed deeply (read: rabbit holes). Lately Iâm relearning working memoryâthat small mental whiteboard that holds just enough in place to connect ideas. Mine isnât what it used to be, so Iâm training it like a muscle:
write the one-line thesis before anything else
stack tiny cues (keywords, not sentences)
set a 90-second timer to commit and move
Yes, I bombed the first one. Also yes: humor + pacing > panic.
(And no, the hip doesnât set off the library alarmsâbut the thought experiments in Philosophy of Mind might đ.)
đ From GED to diploma
This summer I closed a chapter I once thought was closed on me: I earned my Associate of Artsâdouble major in Psychology and Philosophyâfrom the College of Western Idaho. It was hard. Full stop.
đ Gratitude
I wouldnât have made it without:
đ an academic advisor who offered calm answers and quick guidance when I needed it most;
đ a philosophy professor who gave me questions instead of answers â and the freedom to use my own mind;
đ a loving partner whoâs been right there through the celebrations and the struggles;
đ§ the best daughter on the planet;
𪨠and a son who never complains when I miss another visit because Iâm overwhelmed â he just greets me with a big smile and an even bigger hug.
Between them, I found balance: a map and a mirror.
(Iâm including a photo of the diploma up topâbecause sometimes you need the reminder in black-and-white.)
đĽ Studying Out Loud (and on YouTube)
Speaking of college â a quick plug for something Iâve been quietly building. Like my Substack, my YouTube channel is completely free. No paywalls, no âpremiumâ episodes â just open access to learning đť.
Every video there is an AI-generated podcast or explainer â mostly built with NotebookLM and a bit of ElevenLabs for voice. But itâs more than drag-and-drop automation. Each piece starts with deep research across multiple AI platforms â I run the same queries through different models to build a large, diverse dataset. Then, using NotebookLM, I interrogate that dataset, follow the connections, and shape the answers into scripts.
ChatGPT 𧊠acts as the orchestrator â coordinating sources, framing questions, and refining tone. The result? A viewer is basically watching me go to college in real time.
This is how I learn: through audio, video, repetition, and on-demand explanation.
Itâs how Iâve adapted my style of study â and how recursive AI has helped me turn learning into something I can both absorb and share.
If that sounds interesting, come take a look â itâs all here:
đ youtube.com/@kerrydraper
đŞWhy this âhalf chapterâ?
Because Chapter 2 is heavy, and I wanted to meet you here first. To say: Iâm still here. Iâm walking a little steadier every day. College is still teaching me how to learn, how to pace, and how to keep going when plans break.
đ Next up â Chapter 2: The Day My World Collapsed
Content note: family, courts, and the long tail of grief.
If youâve followed my work, you know I write about justice and second chances. Chapter 2 is where those threads meet my own life most directly. If you only read one thing from me this fall, make it that one.
Thank you for walking this bridge with me.
âKerry