The end is near...

The end of my time at IBC that is. Last night I started my last semester of school. All that's standing between me and my degree is 14 weeks of class. It doesn't sound like a long time, but I have a feeling this summer is going to take longer than I want. I have a feeling I may be a bit busy with other things when this summer concludes so I thought I'd take this opportunity to share a few highlights of my journey to get a degree. I'm not exactly sure what started my thought process that led to my going back to college. But there were several reasons that I made the decision. I'm glad I did, but I'll also be glad to be done.

September 2007 - Lily started her first year of preschool the same week I started my first semester at IBC. Lily quickly decided that her school must be much more fun than mine because she got to play with play doh.. I just got to sit and listen to the teacher talk. She was right.

October 2007 - I took my first 2 tests. I completely freaked out about them but ended up receiving A's on both of them. I have sense then only taken a few tests that I haven't earned an A on.

January 2008 - My second semester began... The class I dreaded my whole life.. Speech. I really hate speaking in front of people.. I mean REALLY HATE IT. Oddly enough, I actually enjoyed this class and got really great comments on all of my speeches. I even caused some tears with one of my speeches about the Club. Mainly I made people laugh with my sarcasm.

February 6, 2008 - Fog, really really really bad fog!!! Really bad. For those who are familiar with the area. IBC is very close to I69. My route home is.. I69, I469, Hwy 27. Very simple route.. unless you can't see a single thing. I ended up getting off of the wrong exit. I had no idea where I was. So I called Karl and said "I'm not sure what you're supposed to do, but I'm lost and it's super foggy and HELP!" I laugh at this now, but it was scary. Karl does an excellent job of calming me down when I over react. He jumps on line to look at a map and calmly asks me if there is a large factory on the side of the road (GM). I firmly tell him that I can't see anything, not the side of the road, not a building not ANYTHING, it was really really foggy. I finally figured out that if I turn around on the road I was on it would get me onto I469. I made it home that night and have never seen fog that thick since. I was very happy to get home. It was scary!

May 2008 - I took the summer semester off. I'm glad I did, mostly. But looking back, if I had taken classes that summer, I would be done and not in class this summer.

September 8, 2008 - Lily's 5th birthday.. yet another semester begins.

Nothing to significant during my classes for a few semesters I guess.. nothing that sticks out anyways...

September 8, 2009 - They seem to love starting the semester on Lil's birthday. This time I took her with me to class and then we went to eat afterwards. She did wonderful, but once again decided that my school was boring!!

April 2010 - I get called to the admissions office.. "We like to go over a students records before their last semester to make sure everything has been completed. We found a discrepancy in your records. You're missing a class." Oh great.. do not tell me I won't graduate in August, please do not tell me I'll need an additional semester. Turns out there were just some errors in the paperwork. The was in fact no discrepancy. Good thing!

May 2010 - I start my last semester knowing that I'll be done with classes a few weeks before classes come to a complete. I start my last semester knowing that I'll be exhausted at the end of each day. I start my last semester knowing that I've worked hard to complete enough classes to qualify for 2 Associates Degrees.

If someone would have told me 3 years ago that by the age of 30 (I'm not there yet, but I will be when I graduate) I would go back to school and earn a degree, I would have told them they were crazy! That it would never happen. But it did happen.

Do I regret not finishing my schooling at ONU or DSU. Nope. At that time I didn't know what I wanted a degree in, I was wasting time and money at the point. I think going back to school at the age of 27 made me appreciate school more. I also think I did better than I would have 10 years ago.

In August I will complete school with 4.0 (I'm pretty positive I'll be able to maintain that this semester). I'm proud of that.

I also encourage anyone else to do it. If you're thinking about going back to school, go for it. Is it hard to take classes while working full time, being a wife and a mother? ABSOLUTELY! But I think it's worth it.