Week 41: Online Degree, The Future

I'm not really sure how it is that I managed to really start looking into finishing my degree online. I mean, I've considered it, but I haven't really taken the opportunity to sit down and investigate the options that are out there. It's definitely something that I need to continue considering and investigating.

It's just, I'm not really sure what it is that I want to do. There is an extent to which I'd like to finish what I've started as far as my degree in Journalism, and yet there's another part of me that wonders if that's wise when I'm not 100% sure that's even the direction that I want to pursue anymore. I mean, yes I really enjoy writing, but as I found during my year at MSU being a Journalist is about SO much more than writing. Anyone can write, and being a Journalist isn't about being a stellar writer anyway (although it certainly helps).

Do I even have what it takes? I know I do, that's a challenge that I can rise to. But... It's just such an investment of time and money, and the future is so uncertain no matter what choice I ultimately make. This isn't anything I'm going to be making a definitive decision on right now.

I guess the point that I'm coming to, or at least my original point before I became mired in all this inner dialogue, it that if I can find a legit online program then it would serve my interests at the moment, because I don't really have the time or the flexibility to take 'traditional' classes. Working full time doesn't allow me the flexibility that working part time did, but I can't afford not to be full time. It's the catch 22 of life really.

For now I'll continue to look into the whole online degree thing. Do you know anyone that's ever completed a degree online? What did they have to say about it?

I'll talk to you soon.

Week 4: About School... Sort of

My intention was to go back to school, at least part-time, this semester. That lasted for all of two weeks.

As it turns out, the folks in the transcript office just got around to looking at the transcript that I had sent in from MSU. I had been under the impression from the conversation that I had had with a counselor previously that none of my classes would ultimately transfer back. Apparently, this was a false impression.

The lady from the transcript office called me the day before the refund date to let me know that the Intro to Journalism class I had enrolled in for the semester correlated with a class that I took at State. She had just noted on my WCC transcript that I had already taken and passed the class.

At that point I had two options. The first of my options was to drop the class that day and get my full refund. The second option was to retake the class and have her wipe the record of having already completing the credit from my transcript.

Having no desire to retake or repay for a class that I had apparently already taken, I dropped the class. There was a moment in which I contemplated finding a class to fill that gap so that I might remain a part-time student, but that was going to be trickier said than done nearly three weeks into the semester.

At any rate, one other class transferred in as well, so now I am only six classes away from FINALLY having a degree. Of course I am still enrolled in my ridiculous computer class... but thankfully I should be finished with that in the next few weeks. Really, it is most certainly the most ridiculous class that I have ever had to take. I guess it'll be worth it in the end though... maybe.

I will commit to nothing.

Week 3: Getting Organized

Well, obviously, this project is off to a great start so far. I promise this is not an omen as to how the rest of the year will be going. In fact, in order to bring another level of organization into my life I've purchased a daily planner. Hopefully that will help me to keep organized and on top of things.

Lists are fantastic tools.

I've started back to school after taking the Fall Semester off, and I'm not really too sure about how well I'm liking it. The Journalism class I'm taking it kind of fun so far, though the Intro Computer class that I'm required to take has been a real pain. While on the one hand it's easy because I am already very computer literate... it's frustrating because I am already very computer literate.

I've been using a computer, and writing papers and such for most of my lifetime. I don't really need to be taking a class in which I am being taught such things. But I guess we all do what we have to do. The goal at this point is an associate degree, and if this class is one of the hoops that I need to jump through then so be it.

Time For Sleep

I have finished my note cards for my Macroeconomics class. It took me a few hours to do, and my concentration didn't always stick with the task at hand, but I've managed to get them done at a decent hour so I think it is safe to call the mission a success.

Now hopefully having actually studied somewhat for the final won't prove to have been a futile attempt. I really, really want to manage to pass that class with a grade that will at least allow me into my major.

Darcy seems to be transfixed by the sound of my trying. She is crouching behind my computer, and frequently peeks around the corner and stares at my hands as they punch the keys. A moment ago she actually lunged around the corner, seemed to examine my hands for a moment, and then thought better about actually attempting to remove them from the keys. I appreciate her ability to abstain from tormenting me.

I think what she actually wants is for me to head to bed, because I've got my heating blanket going and she likes to lay on the bed when the heating blanket has been turned on. Darcy, much like me, does not enjoy the cold weather.

Tomorrow morning I have to head back to school so that I can take my first final of the week. It's around noon, so I don't have to leave super early. I just really wish this week was over. I'm ready to get the tests out of the way and move on.

Sunday Study Session

I went from not planning to study whatsoever for any of my exams, to spending my evening making note cards and reviewing for my Macroeconomics exam on Tuesday. That is the only class that I am slightly worried about because I didn't always pay as much attention as I should have during it.

I'm really hoping that I did well enough in it that I won't have to take it over again, because as boring as it was the first time around I can only imagine how boring it would be the second time around.

For the most part though I've nearly finished making note cards. I'll probably spend some portion of tomorrow afternoon going back over them, but at the moment I don't plan on devoting an extensive amount of time to it. I've hit that point in the semester that if I haven't gotten it yet, I'm running short on chances to do so.

At any rate, blogging seems to be going well today which is kind of extraordinary recently. I nearly forgot that I still needed to write two more entries to fulfill my responsibilities for the weekend, but I think I've managed to correct that near oversight. Now I am back to studying before returning for one last update.

Laundry Night

My final out of class story for JRN 200 is due on Thursday. I still need to get it written despite having had every intention to get it out of the way sooner. Intentions don't always translate the way that we'd like them to unfortunately.

I've managed to get it super organized and planned out while also getting laundry done. I'm hoping that the writing starts to flow better once I sit down with my computer. The plan for the moment is to at least have something written by the time I go to bed tonight.

It's not that the article is particuarily hard to write, it's just a matter of taking the time to sit down and focus on getting it done. That and there is a lot of information that I need to sift through and determine what goes and what stays.

It doesn't help that this is basically the last full week of the semester so I'm more focused on going home for break than school work.

Just one more week!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod

Awesome is the Word

Today was awesome, I love being at home!

By coming home from school last night, I skipped my classes this morning, but I could definitely afford to do it. The prospect of extra time spent here at home was just far too enticing. Plus, the way that I figure it my GPA is in good shape at the moment and so there's nothing to worry about.

This afternoon Sarah and I planned to go to Cabela's but first I stopped the The Book Abby, a local used bookstore. I picked up one of the two Mitch Albom books that I'm missing. Hopefully at some point while I'm home I'll manage to pick up the other one at another used bookstore. Maybe I'll finally go visit the one down in Toledo that I've been planning to visit.

Anyway, Sarah and I went to Cabela's and it was awesome to get to see everyone. I really do miss working there. It's strange to find yourself at a place in your life where you are content with where you are, and yet missing what you had. I frequently find myself caught in that conflict.

But, I did get it set up so that I can go back to work after finals. Call me crazy if you like, but I'm excited to be going back to work. It'll be awesome!

The Same Old

I have to decide what book I want to write a review on and post it to my SpartanEdge blog. I'm considering writing something up on one of Maureen Johnson's books. "13 Little Blue Envelopes" is a very good candidate...

I'm also hoping to have 'Liar' finished by Saturday afternoon so that I can write up a review of that and have it be my third review for this week. It's all about budgeting time, something that I have been struggling with lately. But I think after being sick this past weekend I can move forward and use my time wisely.

I took the time I needed to start feeling better, and now it is time to jump in and get this semester wrapped up. The semester is almost over, can you believe it? Sometimes it's hard to believe, but certainly welcome. I've hit that point in a few of my classes, where it was fun but now it's a kind of drudgery. I'm looking forward to doing something different.

I'm really excited about getting back to work during break. I really miss all of my co-workers and it'll be great to get to see everybody again. Even though holiday shoppers aren't the nicest shoppers, it'll still be fun.

What is it about the holidays that brings the worst out in people anyway? You always hear that the holidays are supposed to be about joy and whatever, but the majority of people that you have to deal with at a retail level are anything but. I understand that they may be stressed, but that is certainly no reason to take it out on the people at the store. They are just doing their jobs.

Bean Bag Toss

Tonight was really fun. I went to a local elementary school and helped out with a kind of carnival that they were holding for their students in the schools gym. They had different games set up, and the kids would 'pay' with a read ticket to play the game, and then win white tickets in exchange for how well they did in the particular game.

Andy and I were manning the bean bag toss. It was really fun to get the opportunity to work with kids again. I haven't really done a lot of volunteer work since high school, and really I've missed it. There truly is something relaxing about donating a portion of your time to someone else. Volunteering is both something that you do for someone else, but also for yourself and for the feeling that you walk away with.

Another awesome thing about today is that I am caught up in all of my classes. Even just last week I felt like I was drowning in school work, and just so far behind but at the moment that's not an issue and that is an amazing feeling. I love being caught up with everything. It's just too stressful the other way around.

Thank God for Facebook

My new phone finally got here today. You can't imagine how good it felt to finally be able to 'talk' to my parents. Sometimes conversations in textual format just don't cut it. I mean really thank God for facebook and alternate medium's to voice conversation... but I'm glad that my family is only a call away again.

I have been really sniffly all day today, and I hope I'm not coming down with anything. That would be awful although not all that unexpected. That is the thing about college campuses. Even over the course of one day you come in contact with a ton of people. It's easy to get sick, and I really don't want to be sick...

I have about a hundred pages to read for class tomorrow, and I've to read it several times now with out making any progress whatsoever. I need to get to reading it. I know this, and yet the motivation really isn't there.

Last night I finally finished reading "Skinned", which is amazing. I will at some point review it. But if you've read Scott Westerfeld's "Uglies" series than you will really enjoy "Skinned" by Robin Wasserman. It's sequel, "Crashed", just came out and I can't wait to pick it up!

Anyway, it's back to work for me.

Falling

I nearly forgot to blog this evening, and now I don't know what to say. My day was eventful in its own way and yet nothing that really seems noteworthy happened. Today was my second to last day at work, and at times it proved to be a bit emotional because there were several people in my department who I was seeing for the last time, or at least until December rolls around.

I've agreed to come back seasonally when I am home from school at Christmas, and so it doesn't make leaving quite so hard. Leaving is actually harder than it ever appeared it would be when it was merely an idea.

It is finally hitting me that I've gotten in and am really moving away. I'm still excited obviously but I'm nervous. I'm leaving behind everyone and everything I know, and plunging into a whole new environment surrounded by new people. I know this post is fairly reminiscent of yesterdays, but it's what's on my mind.

I'm not very good at saying goodbye, or at least maybe I am but then I'm not so great at conveying just how much people mean to me. I've grown very comfortable with life as it has been these past two years and trading all of that in makes me nervous.

What if I'm about to fall flat on my face?

Nervous Energy

Saturday is posed to be both an ending and a beginning. As of Saturday I will be leaving the place that I have worked at for just over two years now, and that makes me a little nervous. I know in the past few months I've managed to convince myself that I needed to hold out for August, that August was the month that mattered and now that it's here all the nervous energy that I haven't felt for all that time seems to have caught up with me.

Saturday means that I am that much closer to leaving behind everything that is familiar and jumping headlong into a foreign environment. I may be moving only an hour and half away, but I am leaving behind family, friends, and a job that I've grown comfortable and competent in.

Will I miss my job? Maybe not the job so much, but definitely the majority of the people. Thankfully I might be able to come back seasonally... I still need to see about working that out.

Styrofoam Mess

Yesterday I forgot that I needed to blog until one in the morning, when I was finally considering sleep. This of course means that I will be blogging twice on either Saturday or Sunday. In my own defense I wasn't really too awake last night, and not having my own computer for the moment is a bit distracting.

Yesterday at work it wasn't really busy, though I kept busy enough. At one point a customer wanted to buy a set of lamps, but the pair she was interested in weren't on display aware so I told her that we could open the box so that she could see what they looked like.

There were three boxes marked to have the set that she was looking for, go figure that everyone of those boxes had the wrong pair of lamps in them. This of course meant that I had to open every box of lamps from that brand to verify that the correct lamps were in them.

Now this wasn't such a horrible task, except for the Styrofoam that they are packed in. The Styrofoam, for whatever reason, refuses to stay in one piece EVER. So of course I was showered in Styrofoam several times over. Egh.

Then of course, prior to work there was the early morning drive up to WCC to work on getting my brother prepared to register for his classes for this semester. Our Mini-Van died the other day, and since dad was golfing my car was the only one available at that moment. It was a long day.

Village Idiot

I knew there was a reason that I don't like the ask for help. Most of the time the only person I feel like I can count on is myself, and recent events have proven that much to me. At any rate my loan finally seems to be secured and I don't have to stress over it anymore.

Eventually my annoyance at the continued implication that I don't know what I'm talking about should fade. Why is it so hard to believe that I am not a complete idiot? First I'm an idiot because everyone around me is convinced that I don't need to resort to loans, and the next minute I'm an idiot because though I've confirmed that I do need to use loans I didn't ask the right or enough questions. Not only do I resent the implication that I'm an idiot because of my presumed ignorance, I further resent being accused of being shy and therefore somehow unfit to go into my desired field. I resent being preached to by someone that I know very well has no idea what they are talking about.

There are just some days that it is easy to find yourself thinking, "Do you have any idea who I am?"

Maybe tomorrow I won't feel like I've been through the wringer, and maybe my headache will have gone away. Although the second idea is unlikely because I have to work. On the subject of work though, it was a good thing that I decided to take a look at the schedule tonight since it was changed since I last looked at it. Someone decided that I needed to come in two hours earlier tomorrow and forgot to tell me about it. That was a crisis averted.

PentUp Rage

Why is everything so fucking difficult? I don’t understand, no matter hard I try the logic here is escaping me. What the hell am I supposed to do? I’m reaching the end of my rope and my back is against the proverbial wall.

The government offers this mindless propaganda about getting an education because that’s the only way to get a job, and yet when you go to get the education there is nowhere to turn in order to acquire the funds. I do not have 20,000 just sitting at my disposal. How the fuck am I supposed to go to school if no one is willing to offer me a loan without a cosigner, and then won’t accept any of my potential cosigners?

I am mad as hell, and quite frankly at the moment I don’t care who knows. The system is broken, the economy is being, or rather has been, flushed down the toilet. When I was younger the powers that be were always talking about the future, and how we children were the future. It’s looking to be a pretty cruddy future at the moment.

Anyone who is willing to be my cosigner has been turned down because their credit isn’t up to the loaners standards and those whose credit would pass aren’t willing. Talk about a fucking catch twenty-two.

I understand that I don’t have a long credit history, but that shouldn’t mean anything as far as a student loan goes because there is no way to get out of repaying it. You cannot claim bankruptcy against a student loan. Besides this, who the hell do you think gets or needs a student loan?
Young people between the ages of 18 and 25 are the ones, for the most part, that will need funding for school. Obviously people in this category don’t have a long credit history, because they don’t have the jobs in which one earns large sums of money a year. These individual have no means of obtaining such a credit history.

In fact the ironic part of it is, is that the whole point of school is to get a job that allows for you not only to pay off your loans but also to be a part of the credit bracket that these lenders are apparently looking for.

FML.

Tuition Headaches

If I were smarter I would keep quiet. I know that my dad isn't upset with me, but even though I know that it's hard to feel as though that's really the case. I understand that it upsets him that I have to come up with so much money for tuition and there is nothing that he can realistically do about it.

I just wish he wouldn't get in such a mood whenever I bring up school. It would be nice if he could just relax. Funding school is my problem, and my problem alone. It doesn't matter to me that my parents don't have the money to send me there, all that matters is that they stand behind me.

The financial support doesn't matter quite so much at the moment as the emotional support, at least not from where I stand. I will work things out, and make school happen. I am determined to manage this, because it is something that I have wanted for a long time.

It may not be fair that the price tag on an education is so high but it is a reality that needs to be faced.

Spider Overload

My day started out with spider overload and went downhill from there. I must be noted that I HATE spiders. While I understand that logically, yes, I am larger than they are they still freak me out. No one ever said that fear had to be rational. If fear was rational than I would be afraid of water rather than spiders.

Anyway, I got to work this afternoon and just before I got out of my car I noticed that there were spiders ALL OVER the outside of my car. Okay, okay maybe not all over but there was more than one and each of them were about the size of a dime. I didn't want to get out of the car, but faced with being late to work I opened the door and hopped out as quickly as I could. Thankfully no spiders made it into my car. That would have been an intense drive home.

Work, was work. There was nothing particularly exciting about it, aside from the return of my headache. At this point I'm fairly certain it's just a tension headache, and once I have things sorted out it will go away. Hopefully in the next week or so I can manage to get things sorted out.

Now there is a moth flying around my room. GREAT.

Headache

I feel as though my head is going to explode. I should probably take something, but... eh.

I suppose it would help if I could just breathe, just take a moment and stop THINKING. Thinking will get you every time. I have the day off Thursday. Maybe I'll spend the day writing. Maybe that's just what the doctor ordered.

Sometimes it is easy to feel like a coward, and generally that is because cowardly behavior isn't all that difficult to identify. At the moment I am tempted to refute these self-aimed claims... and yet I can't bring myself to. If I weren't so cowardly maybe I wouldn't feel the stress of all of these decisions weighing down on my shoulders.

I know what I need to do, and yet that doesn't make me any more inclined to get up and going about doing what needs to be done. I need to make a decision and follow through with it, and perhaps than I will manage to lose this headache.

Fictional Worlds

The goal for this evening is to finish reading "Cry Wolf" by Patricia Briggs. It's marvelous, and is definitely putting to rest any notion that I may have previously held of not enjoying her novels that aren't about Mercy Thompson. While the Mercy Thompson Series remains my favorite, I am definitely enjoying "Cry Wolf".

Tomorrow morning I go back to work after having yesterday and today off. It's hard to get back into the groove, but that is life I suppose. Tomorrow night I have to focus on finding a cosigner. I'm anxious for August to get here, but I need to get the funding in order if I still plan on going to school, which I very much do.

Why does school require so much money? Is it really any wonder that college students today are facing greater stress levels?

Eh. I am now returning to fictional worlds, where things make sense.

Twelfth Night: The Paper

I’m 80% of the way done writing my final paper for my Shakespeare class. I’m excited at the prospect of being finished, but I can’t seem to hold my focus on the actual task of writing the paper. This is a common problem, however, when it comes to paper writing.

It is a generally acknowledge truth that paper writing is 90% procrastination and 10% actual writing. It all seems to even out in the end…

I have the next two days off, I don’t have to go to work or school, so of course it is supposed to rain. The only days that ever seem to be nice weather wise are always the days that I have obligations elsewhere. ::sigh::.

Alright, so I have dilly dallied enough as it is, and must get back to some serious paper writing. I promise to try and be more interesting tomorrow. Toodles!