Once again, I stopped updating regularly. What can I say, it's been a very busy summer. Life with a toddler and a teenager is freaking hectic, y'all. And things aren't going to slow down anytime soon, so I'm logging in to say farewell for a bit. I've got something big starting in less than a month and, realistically, I don't have time to update or to feel guilty about not updating.
Guys, I'm going back to school. I feel kind of weird about it because, well, I'm 39 years old and I haven't set foot in a class since I was 25. Going back and getting my degree has always been the plan, but somehow the plan kept getting pushed back over the years and now I'm going to be the old lady on campus. I've tried the online school thing in the past and it didn't work out for me. I need the structure of having an actual, physical classroom to perform well. And I'm fortunate enough to have a supportive spouse and a flexible enough part time job that I can take the next couple of years to be a full time student, so I'm going for it. Even though I'm terrified.
I'm also feeling weird about all of this because for close to 20 years now I have been talking about getting a degree in history, but that's not the degree I'm getting now and I'm happy about it. Back home on the east coast it was going to be historic preservation. Out here in Oklahoma, there's not such a demand for that (or any schools with that program) so I had turned my thoughts to a museum studies concentration.
The thing is though, we have no plans to leave Oklahoma anytime in the foreseeable future which is a problem because there are no jobs in that field here. And I don't want to spend all this money on something that will have ended up just being a piece of paper that maybe gets me an extra dollar an hour (if I'm lucky) at a job that's totally unrelated to anything I have been studying. And if I'm being totally honest, I wasn't finding the descriptions of my upcoming classes to be very inspiring, overall.
After weeks of planning, I've finally let myself contemplate a degree in something other than history and I'm really excited about what I've decided on. I'll be getting a BA in Technical Writing with a minor in the Humanities. This marries all the things I love (writing, editing, researching) and gets me a foot in the door of a steadily growing field with lots of good-paying jobs, even here in Oklahoma (that low cost of living comes with a price - the average pay for the admin-type work I did before my daughter was born is... not great).
Starting in a few more weeks, I'm going to be so busy and I don't think anyone wants to read my reviews of textbooks. Particularly not my grammar and usage or history of rhetoric books. I'll try to keep updating while I'm in school, but I have a feeling that the days of even monthly (or quarterly) updates may be over once August rolls around. I've barely had time to read all summer as it is, and classes haven't even started up yet. At the very least, there's going to be a long adjustment period while I re-learn how to juggle 15 credit hours, a part time job, and my family. Have I mentioned before that I'm naturally a lazy person whose favorite thing to do is nap or watch tv and just kind of... exist?
I also have a feeling that when I do get back to reading for me, most of what I'll be reading during the school term is going to be trashy. When I get overwhelmed with "serious books" I tend to need something fluffy to reset my brain. So if you aren't a fan of romance novels and classic chick lit (or, like, my thoughts on my eighth re-read of Pride and Prejudice), you'll want to look away for a few years.
School is going to be pretty all-encompassing for the next few years. I'm going back as a freshman (like 3 credits shy of sophomore status, but whatever, I don't want to talk about it). This is my third time attempting a degree, but the first time I've been really serious about it. Previous attempts have been all about taking fun classes that were enjoyable and easy for me, so I had very few credits that actually transferred. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I wish I could go back in time and kick my own ass for not getting my math and communications credits out of the way. And don't even get me started on how I just found out that if I had taken 4 years of 1 language in high school, instead of 2 years of French and 3 years of Latin, I could totally have skipped my whole foreign language requirement now (8 credits y'all!).
Deep breath.
At any rate, wish me luck! I'm finally going to get my degree!
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