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Steve's got it all - great wife, smart kids, successful career - except for one thing: a college degree. Now, at 44, he's going back to school online at St. Petersburg College to finish the associate's degree he abandoned 25 years ago.
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As I get closer and closer to finishing my final class necessary to earn my associate degree at St. Petersburg College, I have to admit that I'm starting to get pretty excited. The anticipation is really building, and to be honest I never thought I'd feel this way when I went into this process. I mean, I'm in my late 40's after all, not a teenager or a 20-something. Earning my first degree is going to be a nice accomplishment. It will certainly help me when it comes to qualifications (if that's ever necessary) and it will show my family -- especially my two teenaged daugthers -- that earning a degree is truly something that I believe is important. I wouldn't want them to use my example and skip the higher education process unless (and this is a big "unless") they get a really great opportunity to advance themselves in their careers and that opportunity absolutely prevents them from pursuing their degrees. That isn't nearly as likely these days as it was in my day, simply because online degree programs mean that a student can attend school and work at the same time with much more ease and success than they used to. This feeling is interesting. I'm really looking forward to receiving that degree that I once thought of as simply "a piece of paper". I'm going to frame that degree, probably with a really nice frame. I've got dozens of certificates of all sorts and I don't have any of them hanging on the wall -- but you can bet this "piece of paper" is going to go up there, for all to see. It's a different feeling, that's for sure. It's a feeling that I really didn't expect. Somewhere along the way I changed my outlook on my degree from just something that I feel I need to do to something that I feel is worthy of pride. It's great.
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I really hate to admit this. Well, I shouldn't say that I actually "hate" it as such. Perhaps a better way to put it would be that I've surprised myself that I am admitting this. Frankly, I'm actually enjoying my math class. Math and I don't really get along. Well, not ALL math, just advanced math. I seem to have a knack for low-level math and I can do some pretty quick computations in my head. In fact, my youngest daughter tests me from time to time and throws out some math problems for no reason at all, and I usually solve them pretty quickly without paper. She says that I'm a math whiz, but she would be surprised to learn that I struggle with advanced math like algebra, calculus, and the like. Anyhow, I'm currently enrolled in Math for Liberal Arts II at St. Petersburg College. I enrolled in this particular class because it was recommended to me. I was told that the instructor was terrific and the class content was great for the math-a-phobic. Well, the person who pointed me in this direction is absolutely spot on. This class is a lot of fun. Really, a LOT of fun. I'm surprised to hear myself say that every time I tell someone about this class, but it truly is a blast. Why? Because the instructor, James Rutledge, designed his class to be exactly that. His lessons are constructed in a way that uses puzzles and brain teasers to impart the mathematical learning we're supposed to be receiving as students. And it works. It absolutely works. For the first time I can remember, I'm enjoying learning math! Now there were a couple of assignments so far that required some extensive writing to complete, but overall the lessons and associated homework are short and to the point and enjoyable to attack because they're presented in a fun, engaging way.
Hats off to you, Mr. Rutledge. You've done what none of my advanced math teachers have ever been able to do. I'm having fun... in a MATH class!
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So here's an update on what's going on with me over at Penn Foster as I'm beginning my Bachelor's in Business Management program... I went to the local public school system headquarters and picked up a copy of my graduation certification so that I could send it over to Penn Foster College. They require proof of graduation or equivalent in order to allow their students to actually get into the program "officially". I brought back the documentation and faxed it over to them. I waited a while (about a week or so) and didn't get any notification from the school that they'd received my documents, so I called in for a little help. A very nice lady looked into it and told me that she couldn't find any record that my proof of graduation had been received. She said that doesn't mean they didn't actually receive it, but they do have a large number of students in their programs and sometimes it does take a while. She told me that I was welcome to wait a while longer, or fax another copy over to them. I decided to fax another copy. This time I waited a couple of weeks and called in to check on the status of my second fax, and I was pleased to find out that the admissions office at Penn Foster College had, indeed, received my proof of graduation. That means everything is in order, and I'm "officially" now heading down the road to my BS in Business Management. Yay for me! Oh, and I requested a copy of my transcripts from both Hillsborough Community College (where I studied in the 1980's) and from St. Petersburg College (where I'm enrolled in the last class I need for my AA). The transcript from St. Petersburg College was easily ordered online and didn't cost anything at all (surprise) and the HCC transcript had to be ordered through the mail and cost me $5.00. As soon as they arrive, I'll send them off to Penn Foster for evaluation to see how much of my past work will transfer. For now, however, I'm trying to focus on my SPC math class... the last class I need for my first-ever degree.
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I have no idea what is going on. Everything seems to be breaking around me, left and right. Last time I told you my laptop died on me (well, the screen died anyhow) and I had to go about getting a new one. Well, my youngest daughter's PC has ALSO now died, so we had to order another for her as well. The DVD drive on my wife's machine has also decided to croak. On top of that, the exhaust fan in our bathroom has decided to stop working (so now, after every bath, the mirror is so fogged up you can't see to brush your hair for about ten minutes). The oven has died (it will broil, but it won't bake). And finally the topper: on Saturday the air conditioner at our home tanked as well. Yeah, this isn't fun. So there I was, in the heat of June in central Florida, and at midnight it's still 82 degrees inside the house. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well that night between the awful heat, the sweat-soaked sheets, and the worry about just how much it was going to cost me to fix the A/C. Some things I can do without, but air conditioning isn't one of them. Fortunately my wife has a friend who has a friend who is in the air condition business, and he agreed to come and look at it on a Sunday morning. I was really worried because while I was waiting for him to arrive, my next door neighbor told me she'd just recently replaced her A/C unit and it cost her almost $5,000. YIPES! Well, as it turned out it was just a capacitor that was the culprit. Our friend only charged us a regular service call rate ($65) rather than the Sunday rate, and the replacement part cost us $45. So for $110 we escaped. It could have been a lot worse, I guess.
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I was very happy today, very happy indeed. All of that changed dramatically, however, when I attempted to boot up my laptop in order to log into my account at St. Petersburg College. I had recently sent the online adviser an e-mail asking them to please review my official transcript to make certain that I've completed all of the requirements for my associate in arts degree before I officially apply for graduation. In order to receive my degree, the school requires that I make an official application for graduation, and to apply I will actually have to pay the school a fee. You may understand that there's no way I'm paying that fee until I know for certain that I will graduate at the end of the summer semester. So I opened my laptopn and pressed the "power on" button and the computer started making some noise, but nothing ever appeared on the screen. After about 10 or 15 minutes of rebooting and rebooting, I came to the conclusion that the machine was coming up, but the display is apparently dead. I confirmed this by connecting an external monitor to the laptop. Ugh. This is a problem. While I can limp along now with an external monitor, in the long run having a laptop that doesn't include a working screen probably defeats the entire purpose of having a laptop. The bigger issue is that I think I may have found one of the most problematic things you may ever encounter as a distance learning student: what happens when you don't have a working computer? In my case, all is not lost because I have the monitor and I also have several other laptops in the house (which belong to my wife and daughters). But what about people with only one PC available? What would happen if they were facing a deadline for an assignment and their computer refused to cooperate?
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