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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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Oh my goodness, guess what came in the mail today? I'll give you a couple of guesses, but I don't think you'll need that many... I am now -- officially -- the holder of a degree! That's right, my liberal arts AA degree diploma arrived from St. Petersburg College, and I am not (TA DA!) a college graduate. Ok, ok, I know that it's only a "two year" degree, but it is a two-year degree that took me 30 years to achieve! In case you don't know my story, I graduated high school in 1979 and I enrolled in a computer programming degree with a local community college in Tampa. The idea was to get my first two years in at the lower-cost community college and then transfer to a four-year college for a bachelor's degree. Well, things didn't go exactly as planned (obviously) and after I'd earned just about half of the credits I needed for that degree, I ended up choosing advancing my career over continuing my studies. I enrolled at St. Petersburg College online and started accumulating the credits I needed to earn an associate degree in liberal arts. My goal was simply to be able to obtain a degree with as little additional work as possible. A fair chunk of my credits from Hillsborough Community College back in 1980 transferred, and I took a CLEP for one other course, but I ended up having to earn a big chunk of credits at SPC in order to achieve my goal. In the end, it came down to one course. I needed a math class in order to complete my degree program and take home this longed-for and sought-after AA degree. That actually proved to be more difficult that it sounds, because the online system prevented me from enrolling in the math class I needed because I had no pre-requisite math class on record at SPC and that one simple math class would have required a placement test, a remedial math, and then finally I would have been able to enroll in the one simple little 3-credit math class I needed. Well, my degree progress languished for months while I tried to figure out what to do. Finally, after looking at all possible alternatives, including seeking a math credit at another school and transferring it SPC, I approached the head of the math department and faxed him my old transcript. I had a math class on there from 1980 that appeared to satisfy the pre-requisite even though it was numbered differently and had a different name. In the end, he cleared me for enrollment and there I was... facing my final obstacle: Math for Liberal Arts II at St. Petersburg College. I did well, earned myself an "A" in the class, and now, today, I'm holding in my hands that degree! WHAT A FEELING! Of course, it doesn't stop there. I've already enrolled in a bachelor's business degree program at Penn Foster College...
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Last time I told you about a couple of things that have been going on in my life over the past couple of months, and how those things have really piled up on us as a family. It has been quite a difficult time, but because we love each other so much and have our family bond to fall back on -- along with our faith -- we've been able to get through it. Each problem we've faced on its own doesn't sound too bad really, and actually me taking the time to write about them here has really helped me. But even though these issues don't seem like "world ending" problems individually, combine all of this stuff together over the course of two short months and at times they felt like they'd be too much to bear. Well, adding to the problems I told you about last time, we've also suffered a string of problems with appliances and fixtures and things around the house. I have no idea why these things seem to have to break all at once, but apparently that's they way that it is. First, our air conditioner broke (twice, as a matter of fact) and you have no idea how hot it can get in a house in the middle of July in central Florida. Fortunately we have an acquaintance in the business who was able to get us a slightly reduced price on the repairs, but still it was hundreds and hundreds of unexpected dollars. Next, the oven quit working on us. Cost for that one was $175 to get a pro to come out and repair. Then we ran into another string of... Well, I'm starting to realize how this sounds, so I won't list every single broken item here to bore you. I'm not usually a complainer, but all of these mechanical breakdowns all coming so close together, well, it really seemed to just overwhelm us. I know we've been through more difficult times, but a lot of small drops of water can become a tidal wave. Individual rain drops, combined together, can flood a valley. There's more, but I'll stop for now. After all, today is the eighth anniversary of 9/11 and I should really be much more grateful for those people who bravely responded when our country came under attack on that day. Thinking of that, well, I really shouldn't complain.
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I've been absent from the eLearners community for the past couple of months. In many ways, July and August of 2009 were among the worst two months I've ever had the unfortunate displeasure of having to endure. In fact, not just myself, but my entire family seemed to have a very difficult struggle during those two grueling and heartless months, but now that things have calmed a bit and our troubles have eased and our burdens have been largely overcome, I'm back and ready to get my blogging and interaction in the eLearners community back on track once again. For an idea of some of the difficulties and hurdles myself and my family have faced over the past several months, I'll give you a short list of the things that we've had to conquer to make it from the end of June to the beginning of September: First, we lost a dear friend during the past month. He's been close to us for quite a number of years now, and it was very painful to have to endure this terrible loss. As we've learned in our years as a family, life goes on... but sometimes life becomes a little bit more difficult to bear when someone you've counted on so much is no longer around to provide the spark and the fire they've always been able to provide. He was laid to rest and facing that created a very difficult time for us, but now the pain has eased a bit. Time heals all wounds, they say.
Second, allergies have been running rampant in our family. Myself, my oldest daughter, and my mother all suffer from allergies, and over the past couple of months they have been particularly severe. In fact, my mother -- who has successfully managed her allergies for many years -- finally found herself suffering so severely that she actually went to the local urgent care center because she simply couldn't handle it any longer. Third... well, I'll talk about third and fourth and fifth and so on next time. Until then, thanks to everyone.
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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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