You know how it is when you go on vacation.  You take off for a few days, have a great time, and when you get back to work you really have to force yourself to get back into the groove.  Well, getting back into your studies is a lot like that, too.

My wife and I took off for a few days this past weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  We spent some time at a casino (we broke even), ate some great food and had a relaxing weekend with no kids in sight.  We took a break from everything, including studying.

Now that we are back home, our responsibilities are back with a vengeance.  I have had to work extra hours at the office to catch up on what I missed while I was gone.  My wife has had more household chores to do than usual, including a grocery shopping trip which took several hours.  I have been catching up on some sales training for my job.  My Financial Accounting course?  I haven’t looked at it in days.  I have to admit, I’m feeling a bit of guilt.

That’s how it is when you are studying a completely self-paced course.  It can be hard to stay on track.  Nobody is going to hold your feet to the fire to make sure you are doing the work you are supposed to be doing and moving through it at a satisfactory pace.  It is completely up to you to remain motivated.

So far, I would say that has been my biggest challenge since I started studying with Penn Foster College.  I am determined to earn my degree, but there are things that come up which serve as road blocks to my study progress, unless I plan for them, set a strict study schedule and stick to it.  Procrastination is a killer in a self-paced program. 

Now that I am caught up on my work at the office, I can turn my attention to my studies once again.  I plan to go back to my schedule of reading a chapter a night.  If I manage to stick to it, I should be able to get through the rest of my course in a couple of weeks. 

While I’m at it, perhaps I can find a distance learning course on self motivation.  After taking a few days off, I could use it!

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As I have mentioned before, most everyone I work with at my job has a college degree.  Many of my co-workers have at least a bachelor’s degree, but there are some who have a master’s and even a doctorate degree.  Me?  I’m still working on obtaining my associate’s degree.

Has this held me back at my job?  I don’t think so.  In fact, whenever we have trivia contests at work, I usually win.  However, I work alongside some incredibly bright and, in most cases, younger people.  Not having a degree weighs heavily on my mind, even if it isn’t mentioned by anybody at work.  I don’t go out of my way to tell anyone I don’t have a degree, but I certainly don’t lie about it, either. 

We have a lot of clients who visit us at the office, and one of the most common, and dreaded, questions I hear is “so, where did you go to school?”  I literally cringe every time I’m asked.  I simply reply with the name of a brick-and-mortar school I once attended.  I did not graduate because I had to leave school to support my family.  I also didn’t have the funds to continue with my education at that time.  I’m not asked “which school did you graduate from?”   I’m asked “where did you go to school?”  I’m answering their question honestly, but at the same time I know what they are really implying.  They want to know which school gave me my degree, and I don’t have one. 

After I complete my associate’s degree from Penn Foster College, will I proudly proclaim my alma mater when someone asks me where I went to school?   I’m really not sure.  On the one hand, I’ll actually be able to name a school which gave me a degree.   On the other hand, I’ll be admitting I merely have an associate’s degree.  When it comes to working in a professional environment, image is everything. 

My employer is aware of my educational status because I do not embellish my resume.  I’m completely honest and I clearly stated I was working toward a marketing degree from Penn Foster College (at the time it was called Education Direct).  Still, I usually remain silent when co-workers talk about where they went to school and where they earned their degree. 

Someday, I will be able to proudly proclaim an alma mater for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees.  I can’t wait.  It will be a great day, indeed.

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I received an interesting email today.  It notified me that I have been withdrawn from university due to a lack of course completion during the last 12 months.  It also told me that if I wished to re-enroll I can do so by submitting a readmission form.  The email ended by saying that they “hope to see me back in class.”

This email wasn’t sent by Penn Foster College, where I am a student.  It was sent by American Military University.  I had completely forgotten that I had submitted an application to the school about a year ago, back when I was thinking of transferring my Penn Foster College credits to another school and then completing my bachelor’s degree.  The great thing about AMU is there is no application fee, you can submit your application online, and you receive a response and a student ID number almost immediately. 

In the end, I decided that $250 per credit hour was more than I wanted to pay at the time, and that I would continue studying with Penn Foster College in a program which costs me about $55 per credit hour.  I did spend some time in the AMU student portal, reading through information about how the school operates.  It looked like a fine program, and who knows…I may actually enroll and become a student at AMU one day. 

As for my “lack of course completion”, I never paid for nor signed up for any courses, so the “lack of course completion” email doesn’t hurt my feelings too much.  It’s kind of hard to get kicked out of a class that you never signed up for in the first place.  I am sure if I decided to “re-enroll” at AMU, they would welcome me back.  After all, I am a military veteran…their target student.

Now, if Penn Foster College had sent me an email saying I had been withdrawn from the college, I’d have a real problem.  Right now, my only problem is working my way through Financial Accounting!

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