It's Been One Week...(I Need a New Hobby)

... and I am having a little bit of trouble getting acclimated to not having to stress about homework everyday.  Or stress over due dates every Sunday.  This is the first Sunday in nearly two years that something hasn't been due (aside from the week breaks here and there).  I don't quite know what to do other than to look for a new job that may or may not keep me in town.  Don't get me wrong. I do have a plan for that, but since I am not doing anything about that until the beginning of the year, it leaves me with a lot of time on my hands that need to be filled with anything but sitting in front of my computer screen watching Netflix all day.  (I will say that I am loving The Originals and Vampire Diaries, though.)

The holidays are usually a time of being happy and cheerful and all of that stuff.  This year I am having rather mixed feelings.  It is the first year in two years that Raven is home, and I am so happy about that.  We bought a live tree for twenty bucks and decorated it with minimal ornaments.  We've made dozens of cookies and other treats.  Raven's birthday was earlier this month, so there were many treats baked for that as well.  She had a slumber party which was a lot of fun. I should have stocked up on Advil.

I have the best boyfriend in the world.  Falcon is one of the most amazing men that I have ever known.  Those that know me well know that I do not even believe in the word "man" because true men have been few and far between in my life.  But, he is intelligent, supportive, and as one friend put it, a "keeper".  While I struggle with my own demons, he has been there to be silently supportive throughout those struggles. 

I do have a few things that have been filling my time, such as things for work.  I had also planned on starting work out more, but it seems that I haven't been motivated to do much about that for now...  I need to work on that.  I guess I will have to enter the time on my calendar if I want it to actually get done.

Maybe I will invest in a new sewing machine.  I used to have one, but it was damaged and I have no idea what happened to it after that.  I many patterns that I could try out and I have been wanting a new wardrobe anyway.

Oh well. I know that when I finally get tired of being tired then change will happen.  No one else is going to make those changes for me.

::endtransmission::

8 Days and Counting or My College Education Story

I'm sure that I have written about the fact that I am in school at least once or thrice before.  Well after twenty some years, I will be finally done with school in eight days.  December 14, 2014 is the last day of torture, hell, stressing over missing assignments, researching for what some would consider meaningless papers and missing out on time with my daughter, Raven.  Finally. Over.

It has been a very long road that began right after high school in 1993.  I began this journey at Lassen College in Susanville, Ca.  I played softball for their team while I knocked out some core classes.  That year was okay, but I decided that I would give school a break.  Well, I gave it a break for a lot longer than I had intended. 

I tried to go back for a short stint at American River College in Sacramento, Ca, but that lasted less than a semester.  I don't recall why I gave up on that, but I suspect it had something to do with being pregnant with my son. 

It wasn't until 2003 (if memory serves, which sometimes it doesn't) that I went back to school again for real.  I was studying Audio Engineering as Sacramento City College.  I was doing very well.  Things happened and so I moved back to Reno thinking that I could finish this degree at one of the colleges there.  I couldn't, so I gave up for many more years.

Then Raven was born.  I decided that I needed to go back to school.  I signed up for Kaplan University and was in their Bachelor's program for Business.  The strange thing was that none of my previous credits transferred to that school.  Oh well.  I took several classes over again.  I was in that program for two years.  Raven was at the hand of neglect for a while when I was on my own because school was taking over.  I decided it was time to drop out.

And then a year-and-a-half ago I was encouraged by a friend in Boise to go back to school.  I researched programs that I thought I would like.  I didn't want to go back into business because I knew that wasn't for me.  My first choice was Forestry, which I would still like to learn, but at the time I didn't want to move to a campus that was five hours or so outside of Boise.  I decided to pursue the current degree I am working on, Bachelor's of Science in Criminal Justice with an Emphasis on Case Management and Corrections from American InterContinental University Online.  Happily, yet strangely enough, 65.5 credits from the three previous colleges transferred to this school.  Makes me wonder why those credits from the two junior colleges didn't transfer to Kaplan.  AIU and Kaplan are accredited by the same people.  It didn't matter.  As long as I didn't have to take math or English again. ;)

Raven had since come back to live with me this past July, and I knew that she would spend many hours alone while I studied.  I have done the best I could to ensure that she understood why I was always on my computer and not spending time with her.  For the most part, she understood and has had a cheery disposition about it.  She is excited, needless to say, about the fact that Mommy won't have to do anymore homework after next weekend. I am looking forward to making up for lost time, if that is even possible.  It isn't as though we have not spent any time together, but I know that I will be able to spend more, and that makes this whole thing worth it. 

I also have to give my thanks to Falcon.  Without him, I would be spending a lot more time in the library using their internet and leaving Raven to her own devices there.  That wasn't something that I was prepared to do.  He has been instrumental in ensuring that she hasn't gone neglected during my times of study over at his place.  He has really taken us both in.  We have spent numerous nights at his apartment so that I could wake up early and get homework started or finished, sometimes both.  He has been supportive in my desire to finish school once and for all.  Without his support and the support of friends from Boise and from my parents, I would not have been able to finish.

Honestly, I know that college isn't the end of learning.  It isn't the end of researching or of study.  If one decides that they have learned all they can or need, then what is the point of continuing to live?  Life is about new experiences and of new challenges.  Who knows?  Perhaps one day I will go back to school and study forestry as I wanted to in the first place. 

I had given up many times.  I shouldn't have.  If I could give any advice to anyone in school it would be to never give up, no matter how hard it gets.  Or:

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe