Academics

So, I've gone back to school. I am a student at BYU. For the past year, I've been taking the classes I wanted to take. I would take my religion classes online, coordinating them with what book of scripture we were studying in Sunday School Gospel Doctrine class.

People ask me how I like college. I say, "Great!" "I'm learning a lot." "I'm having fun in my ASL classes."

Kyle says, "Sure, college is fun now, wait til you have to take the classes you don't like."

He's right. This summer I started two classes online. HEPE 129 (Health Ed. & Phys. Ed) and American Heritage 100. I've been lagging on the HEPE because you have to do a 12 week exercise program to show progress and I've been having a hard time getting my fat, lazy ass out of bed to exercise. (Yes I said ass, because butt just doesn't do it justice). I'm a member of Curves and it has been hard getting there this summer. But now that school/work has started and I'm in more of a routine, it should be easier.

Also, I've been lagging on the American Heritage class. Now, when I went to BYU the first time 1991-1992, I failed American Heritage. So this time I thought, "Hey, I'll take it online, so I can go at my own pace and I have a whole year to finish it, not just a semester." Now, I'm not a very political person. If this class were just historical events and dates I would be fine. But no. It is about policies and politics. Defining arete, and what the difference between Classical Republicanism, Liberal Republicanism and Democratic Republicanism is. The readings are long and I just get tired and sleepy. I bought this class in May 2008 so I have until May 2009 to finish. So far I have completed 7 of 28 lessons. I need to buckle down!

For this Fall semester I am taking Humanities 201 and Engish 150. So far for Humanities we've studied Genesis and Mesopotamia, and are now into the Iliad. For English we've discussed Writing and Rhetoric. I've learned that writing is meant to be read. Sometimes we write for ourselves like with poetry and journals because it helps us process thoughts and feelings. But don't we intend that future generations might read it? So we write for others to read. I think letter writing is a lost art. Now-a-days we just send quick emails, texts and ims. Grammar and spelling are sometimes thrown out the window in these venues. I think blogging is bringing back the art of writing.

Going back to college, it has been a trial to balance work, school, church and family. I am out of the home a lot fulfilling the diffent needs each of these require. When I decided I wanted to go back to college and get a degree, Kyle asked, "Yeah, how come we never had you go back and finish you degree?" (He finished his when we were first married) I answered, "I don't know, because we were poor, I worked full-time and we had small children." Then I said, "Wait a minute, we are still poor, I work pretty much full-time and we still have small children." I know that the timing is right to get my degree now.

So, what I have learned is that college is not only fun, but it is HARD.