Transitions

                                                             Forbidden City

So here we are, at the cusp of a new semester of school. Since I graduated in May, this fact should have no impact on my life; however, prior to my long-awaited graduation I did the unthinkable and applied to graduate school. The graduate committee proceeded to do the unthinkable and accepted me into the program. Rotten luck, that. If they had only turned me down, I wouldn't feel obliged to go. But, despite my abysmal GRE math scores I have been admitted to the history program and begin school next Monday. I have three evening classes, running from 6:30 to 9:20, Monday through Wednesday. I gleefully believed my time for sitting through long evening classes had come to an end, but it was not to be.

Honestly, I'm not going into this latest endeavor with my whole heart as I did when working toward my undergraduate degree. My undergrad degree was my goal, my dream, and it had my full attention. I was determined to succeed and obtain my degree, no matter how long it took or how difficult it became. I don't feel that way about grad school. It's almost like I'm must testing the waters with this first semester. Can I stand to do the school thing for another year and a half? Is it worth it to me, to deal with the homework and the time spent studying? I don't have the answers to these questions yet, but I soon will. I'll let you know.

Meanwhile, following a trip to China, I have been working part-time, continued with my volunteer efforts at the archives with a project that is taking longer than I anticipated, and I have been writing a book that I hope to complete before the end of the year. Not much going on, as you can see.

Also, as promised in an earlier post, I have begun two new blogs. One is about family history/genealogy, and the other about Ozarks/Missouri history. And just to top things off, I have a new Facebook page devoted to history and genealogy, located here. I hope you will stop by and visit me at my new locations. I will still pop in here from time to time; without a doubt I will have a few rants to make about grad school!

Looking Forward

Before we look forward let's take a quick look back at last semester (since I've been so negligent in posting, sorry). The semester was long and tedious and I finished it with two A's, an A-, and a B. Fortunately, I've learned that a B is acceptable so I am a happy camper.

Looking forward, after a five week break from school my last semester begins tomorrow. I have one last class to take before I graduate on May 18. The subject of the class is Murder and Memory in the Ozarks.  Each class member will write a research paper about, you guessed it...a murder that took place in the Ozarks.  Much of the information for this paper will come from the county archives, where I just happen to be a volunteer.

I do have a few plans that will hopefully come to fruition sometime prior to my last day of school.  I'm going to begin two new blogs at Wordpress...that is, if I can figure out how to use Wordpress.  This blog will end by May 18 and I would like to have my new ones already up and running.  One will be a family history blog and the other will be about the Ozarks and Ozarks history. My plan is to incorporate this semesters research paper into my Ozarks history blog.

Hopefully at least one of these new blog subjects will be of interest to someone besides myself though, quite frankly, I'm still a little amazed that I have followers on this school blog. I've been both surprised and pleased to have enjoyed an audience of friends and fellow non-traditional students like myself, who have been willing to listen to my rants about my school experiences and to have had the privilege of following them on their journey as well.  These blogging friends have been a tremendous support group during my long journey through school.  Though this oft-neglected blog is about to runs its course, I will still be following the blogs of those friends I've made here during the last few years. I appreciate each and every one of you.

I still can't comprehend that I'm finally almost finished; what will life be like without school; who will I be when I am no longer a student? I already feel lost and apprehensive and the end is still four months away.

Rant #2

Today, for the first time since I began my adventure as a non-trad, I felt like a real student. I've always been an evening or online student and have missed out on a large portion of the traditional college experience. Today was my first day of daytime classes, and somehow it made me feel like a real college student, at long last. It was an exciting and satisfying experience.

It was also quite terrifying. Spanish class was as bad as I expected; the instructor spoke nothing but Spanish. In fact, he kept reiterating, in Spanish of course, that in this class there would be no text book required, as we would be spending our time actually speaking Spanish. Yikes!!!!

Fortunately, my companero from Spanish 202 is in the class with me. CP is a sweet young 20 year old girl who spent a year living in Mexico, so she has a handle on this Spanish thing. I guess I'm going to have to find my own handle; after all, it is my minor.

Latin American Civ. is the class I've been most excited about, and I think it will be a fun class. The teacher will not be boring, as was evident this afternoon during the introduction. I've never heard a college professor use the "F" word in class! Oh boy, it's going to be an interesting semester.

After surviving my first two day classes, I went on to the gym and spent 1/2 hour on the treadmill, then went to Taco Bell with H. Then back to school for a three hour marathon about the British Empire. Actually, we got out early tonight, which was fortunate because the professor was very dry and by this time I was very tired.

One of the differences between traditional and non-traditional students became apparent to me today as I was making my way across campus amidst all the students - I was carrying a purse and I don't think I saw any young college girls carrying purses. Just one more thing that sets me apart. I have never noticed this before, since I'm used to evening classes when the campus is fairly quiet with not many students around.

I found out today how busy the campus really is during the day when most students are in class. I hadn't factored in all the people when I was calculating how long it would take me to get from Siceluff to Strong Hall. In fact, I barely made it on time. It takes every bit of the ten minutes that I have between classes to get there, as it is a long hike between buildings.

All in all, it was a big adventure and despite my many fears, I can't wait to go back again on Wednesday.

Rant #1

It is official; I have lost my mind. What makes me think I can work full-time and take 12 hours of school is beyond me. Today is day one for my OTC class, Introduction to Ethics. It is a requirement for my history degree at MSU, but costs about half the price at OTC, so I rashly decided to take it online this semester whilst taking 9 hours at MSU. I would have taken Intro to Philosophy, but the guy who teaches the Ethics class is a teacher I have had before, so I decided to go with the devil I knew. I think it will be an interesting class, and he gives unusual assignments.

I've already completed our first assignment, but I wasn't the first one. There is always at least one person in an online class who seems to sit on top of the computer waiting for an assignment to be posted so they can hop right on it. As I am at work all day, I am not that person. But let's not talk about work; this blog isn't big enough for that rant.

My classes at MSU are: Latin American Civilization, British Empire, and Spanish Proficiency Skills. I'm quite nervous about the Spanish class. My previous Spanish instructor was an easy "A" and we weren't usually required to learn much vocabulary. Those of us with a Spanish minor where very aware that we could be in difficult straits when we had to move on to another teacher. That time is now. If he speaks only Spanish in class, I am doomed.

I'm very excited about my history classes although also quite nervous. These will be the first upper level classes I have ever taken and I don't know for sure what the work load will be like. Also, I've always been an evening and/or online student and have never before taken a day class. It's a safe bet that all my classmates will be under 21. Even my teachers are frequently younger than I am. I should be used to it by now, but it would be so nice to have a class with someone my age. I know they are there somewhere, I've just never seen any of them.

I guess that is enough ranting for one day. I need to get started on my next Ethics assignment. Somehow I have to stay ahead of the game and not let myself drown. Wish me luck!