About 16 weeks ago, I started college at Rock Valley College. I hadn't been to school since 1995. I didn't know what to expect. I was nervous, excited, and scared. I added school to my already busy life of work, family, and my fun stuff I like to do. I only took on two classes. That is English 99 and Std 100. No I wasn't learning about sexually transmitted diseases. It was a class to prepare you to be a college student. I was a little worried if I need a class to prepare me shouldn't I just take it. How am I going to swing it till they prepare me. After the first few weeks, I learned that a lot of what to prepare me was what I already learned as a adult. That class only met once a week, but I am glad that it was there for me.
My main class was my English 99 class. We met three times a week. It was a great experience. It was a mixture of young and old students. I am only 32 years old, and I am old in the eyes of students fresh out of high school. It's amazing how time flies by. Where did the carefree days of being young go? They went away a long time ago. I had a great teacher, and he wasn't bad to look at. He was funny to be around too, but most importantly he made class worth while showing up. He was very helpful, and helped make my first college experience a positive one. He was a little bit off the wall in the way he talked sometimes, but that is what I liked about him.
We wrote a few papers on critical thinking. They really got your mind working. You had to explain what the writer meant,agree or disagree, and relate it to your own life. Sometimes relating it to your own life could be hard. Either because you can't relate, or do you really want to speak the truth of how it relates to your own life. It helped that it wasn't like grade school, and your parents were reading your paper. Or the teacher read it to the class.
Part of our course study was to read the book called, There are no children here. It was the story of two boys growing up in the other America by Alex Kotlowitz. It was a very good book, but I admit that I probably wouldn't have read it on my own. It's a true story of the childhood that the children in the book didn't get to have. The children seen too many hardships to be called children. I could sell it back to the school, but I think I prefer to keep it as a reminder of my first semester at school.
Today our portfolio of our three major papers was due. Yesterday I thought I was all ready, but decided to give all three papers one more look. I found mistakes on two of the three. One mistakes was a big goof. I misspelled the author name. That wouldn't have been cool. So I fixed the mistakes on my paper, and saved the papers again on my flash drive.Then I had to reprint the papers. Then I printed a couple pictures of my kids, my house, and my rose bush. We want a happy teacher when he is grading our papers.
On next Wednesday, we have to take a final exam. It will be the same critical thinking. We will get to choose between three quotes, and will have to explain it, agree or disagree, and relate it to life. The big difference is that we only have two hours to do this in. There won't be papers sitting in our folder, and looking it over and over. We get two hours. Our teacher will be able to help, but mostly we are on our own. It should all work out just fine.
I am not sure if I am going to continue in college. I have to work full time. I have to be a Mom, and a wife. I am a little frustrated. I don't know if I can keep my balance act. Sometimes I am falling off the horse. I can't be it all. I can't spend all my time taking care of everyone else. I can't be the major bread winner, and the only one who cares if the bills are paid or not. I want to get a degree in something, but in what? I really don't know. So if I don't know what degree I want, what classes do I take? I can't be a full time student, because I have to work. My job right now is taking care of Bob* and Sandy*, and I am not sure if it can get any better than them. They are great. The caregivers are brought in, and treated like family. Their home is my home. I can clutter my side of the table with my school work or my scrap book kit, and that is okay with them. We can put on our Pj's and read a book. We get to watch movies. Sandy's mind isn't as bright as it once was. When she wants something you better jump. You can't win a argument with her. She gets very angry. I was hit by her the other day, but later on she was sweet as pie. It's not her fault. It's the disease that is robbing her of her brain. So not only do I forgive her, but I love her and her husband. Who knows how much longer they will live. Do I make my class hours around them. Can I assume they will be living next month? After they are gone, I am not sure where my next step in life will be. Any job other than working for Bob and Sandy is going to suck. There are days that I feel so loved by them that I want to cry. How much longer can I work around people, just wondering when they are going to take their last breath. It would be much easier to accept losing them if I didn't love them. However, to experience love you have to open yourself up for the grief.
Bob* says for me to get my education, and always talks about how he is afraid for our future. He says his generation, and the generation before him left this country in very bad shape. He loves to talk, but his wife isn't much for talking. Sometimes we get told to shut up. haha. Got to love her. He has this way of saying it's just unbelievable. I guess for him all of stuff is unbelievable. He grew up in a time where you could buy a new car a car for less than 2 grand, or big house for less than 20 grand. Where your parents paid for your education, and then he paid for his kids education. Then he turned around and paid for all of his kids education. Where did those days go? I don't know. As Bob* would say it's unbelievable, it's just unbelievable. So where do I go from here? I don't know. What I do know is this. I have this crazy cat,Precious, who likes to sleep with me. Tad calls her Ms. B for Bitch haha. Not only does she like to sleep with me, but she sleeps on my hips, on my back, on my stomach, and worse yet on my pillow. Not just a small part of my pillow, she stretches out. When my husband and I toss and turn and fight over the covers, you have this cat getting pulled back and forth. She just doesn't care, and you know why? Because she is Ms. B!!! She can do that!!!!Do you know why she can do that? She learned from me. I am Ms. B's Mom after all. Don't hate the cat, because she is beautiful. Everyone this last paragraph has not been a unified paragraph. I can do that, because Ms. B is my cat!!!!
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