***Originally posted to cregarstyle on June 21, 2014***
It's official. I hate summer school. To be completely fair, I don't think there is a person out there who enjoys summer school, but I am just about burned out on my educational pathway at the moment. For those of you who don't personally know me, let me bring you up to speed on my wonderful 7 year educational journey.
I graduated HS in June of 2008 and was just as eager as any other graduate to head off to college and have some freedom. I had lived my entire life in Portland, Oregon and was beyond excited to start a new life in Towson, Maryland some 3000 miles away from home. I loved every second of it. I went to Towson University as a Nursing major even though my heart was really in Athletic Training. After the first semester of loving college, but hating school, I changed my major to Athletic Training. However that was a 4 year degree from the time you start the program (which only starts every fall), which meant I would be on the 5 year plan to a Bachelor's degree. OH THE HUMANITY! If I had only known that it would really take me 7 years to graduate instead of the 5 I would have just done it.
I digress. So I changed to Athletic Training. I loved my classes and really felt like that is what I was supposed to do with my life (besides struggling through Anatomy). In the summer of 2009 I applied for an internship working with the Portland Trail Blazers professional basketball team in the Athletic Training department. Since I would be away at school for most of the season, they said I could come for 3 weeks of my winter break. I loved every single second that I worked there. It was the dream job. The people were amazing, the players were fun, the trainers helped me learn so much, and I got to work hands on with real athletes. The head trainer even said to contact him when I graduated and he would write me a letter of rec for any job I applied for and even said he would hire me as an assistant trainer if he had an opening by then. I had an "in" at the career I wanted as soon as I graduated. Every college student's dream. Unfortunately, I also learned that trainers were the first people in the office and the last to leave, which didn't scare me at the time because when you find a job you love, you never work a day in your life. However, a few months down the line, I was back at school and things were really starting to get serious between me and Aaron. We were talking about marriage (way down the line) and knew that there was something very different about this relationship.
I don't want to mislead any readers, or my husband. I did not leave athletic training for Aaron. I changed my major for a bunch of reasons, some of which took me being in a serious relationship to understand how important it was. The main reason I stepped away from the athletic training major was that I knew deep in my heart my biggest aspiration in life was not to be an athletic trainer (that was second). My biggest goal was to be a wonderful wife and mother. I knew that it would be possible to have a family and be a successful career in athletic training, but what kind of mother would I be? The kind of athletic trainer I wanted to be would be traveling every few days with the team and working long hours while I was home. It would take me away from seeing my babies walk, talk, speak for the first time. Even if it meant that my husband could stay home with them, I was going to miss it and that wasn't something I could live with. Not to mention, Aaron was heading for a military career so if we were going to work out, I wouldn't be anywhere long enough to become the kind of trainer I wanted to be. His career would have to be first until the Army was done with us. Again, he was not the reason I left the AT major, he just opened my eyes to what I would be giving up to live that life. So I moved on to the more vague, faster to graduate, program of Exercise Science.
College is SOOOO fun besides that pesky school part.
No one really knows what you can do with a bachelor's degree in exercise science besides apply for graduate school. I had no intention of going to graduate school, but I did want to graduate from college earlier and feel the accomplishment of completing something. That didn't last long. My passion for school was gone from my body as soon as I left Athletic Training. In December of 2010, after two and half years of wasting my parent's money at Towson University, changing my major several times, and finding and losing my passion I dropped out of school.
At that point, my parents cut me off financially. This was no surprise to me. They told me that if I didn't continue in school that they would not continue to support me financially. It had always been the rule and I was completely aware of that when I made the decision. However, being aware that you have no financial help is not the most comforting feeling in the world. I applied for several jobs and finally landed two part time jobs that would help me pay the bills as I continued looking for a new passion for life. I call this time in my life "the lost year." I worked odd jobs but had no real career path. I watched as my friends entered their senior year and as my boyfriend graduated college and started on his new life in the real world. I felt as if I was being left behind. Not only was I being left, I had chosen to be left behind. I couldn't blame anyone but myself. I had opted to stop the forward progress and just be.
The day Aaron graduated from VMI! (during the lost year)
During that lost year I turned 21, realized that life with out a degree opens very few doors, and decided to go back to school for a degree in Physical Education. It was about as close as I could get to Athletic Training and still be able to have a family and move around with a military spouse. In January 2012 I started back to school at the Community College of Baltimore County. I knew at this point that I would be moving to Texas to join Aaron at Fort Hood after the semester and I had plans to attend the University of Texas in Austin so during that semester I worked on prerequisites for their PE program part time while I still maintained my two part time jobs.
As planned, after that semester I moved to Texas with nothing except myself and what would fit in my car. It was quite liberating. A friend made the drive with me in what should have been 3 relatively long days but turned out to be 2 EXTREMELY long days. When I got to Texas I realized there was a small community college in the town Aaron lived in that would allow me to save money while working on my pre-reqs for UT. I enrolled at Temple College in August 2012. Ok count with me...Towson University, Community College of Baltimore County, and now Temple College....we are up to 3 colleges at this point and 4 years with no degree. I moved into my own student apartment for the academic year and went to school part time the first semester while again working odd jobs. The spring of 2013 I decided to up the pace to full time (12 credits). Part time work, full time school was difficult. Not to mention trying to pay for school and rent when you're only working 20 hours a week as a waitress is next to impossible.
During my time at Temple College I changed from a degree in PE to a general education degree since budget cuts were making PE jobs harder to get especially since we would be moving around as the Army deemed acceptable. At this point I realized that going to UT would cost me nearly $15,000 more than if I attending the local Texas A&M University only a couple towns over. As much as I had my heart set on UT, I couldn't justify adding more to my college debt just for a name, not to mention the 90 minute commute one way to school every day. In the Summer of 2013 I applied as a transfer to A&M an was accepted for the Spring 2014 semester.
Aaron and I got engaged that winter and I started at A&M in the spring with over time credits (18). Planning a wedding in 4 months is difficult, but to add 18 credits on top is insane. In the first 2 weeks of the the semester Aaron and I realized that my projected graduation date of December 2015 would be too far away since the Army had plans to move us as early as May 2015. I had always planned on staying behind to finish if Aaron had to move on before I was done, but it occurred to me that the semester we would be apart would be Fall 2015 where I would be doing my student teaching and would not have time to work even part time. How was I supposed to pay rent or our mortgage if I couldn't work and Aaron would be paying rent on an apartment wherever he was. It just wasn't going to work. So once again, a major change came into play. We are up to six majors (Nursing, AT, Exercise Science, PE, Edu, and now Liberal Studies). I decided on a degree in Liberal Studies with concentrations in math and psychology. I would probably need a masters degree or alternative teaching certificate down the line to teach but it would allow me to graduate by May 2015 assuming I worked really hard between Feb 2014 and then.
Attempting to do hw outside to get some vitamin D
Fast forward to now...June 2014. I am in my last 45 credits and am piling them all to the brim. Full time credits during the summer term is considered 9 credit hours. I am enrolled in 12. During the fall I will have 15 credits (full time is 12) and another 15 in the spring. But then I will graduate in May and not have to go to summer school next summer!!!! This is the second summer in a row I have been in summer school and I have to tell you it is AWFUL! My spring semester ended May 8 and summer session began June 2 so I had roughly 3 weeks off. I have one 5 week course that ends July 3rd and three 8 week courses that end July 24. I will have approximately a month of actual summer before I start back to the daily grind of my senior year.
I think the hardest part about summer school is that it is a beautiful 90-100 degree day and I am stuck inside writing papers. However, I am more aware of the fact that my friends all have "big girl" jobs and work during the summers so they don't get to go lay out at the pool during the day either. Oh how awful it is to grow up and not get to have summers anymore. One day I will finally be a teacher and I will get to have summers to myself again. But until then its bye bye to summers.
Sorry for the boring long post...I'll get back to the fun stuff as soon as my academic schedule allows me to...until then...
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