In the home stretch

Wow, I'm in the home stretch of my first semester of college. I'm super excited to have actually finished a semester, and if it is not to braggy, I am also really proud of myself. There have been times when it was a struggle to get the homework done, with work and school and family. But it has been so worth it. I am now a semester closer to getting a degree. Makes me almost feel like a grown up. I've managed to keep all "A"s this whole time, which I never did the whole time I was in school as a kid. Even though then I only had school to worry about. I think that maybe I'm the type of person who needed to wait to go to college in order to be mature enough to maintain the grades and the responsibility of it. Only one week left and it is Winter Break. Tah Dah!!!

No title

This week I don't really have anything to write about. Same old schedule. Work, home, homework.
I had to submit a 4 page paper for English class to be peer reviewed, but oddly enough my papers never have 2 people sign up for them. Which makes me wonder who isn't doing their part. is it me writing about totally boring subjects and no one is interested in reading them, or since I post my papers early in the week am I just getting pushed down to the bottom of the posts and no one is bothering to scroll down that far? I guess it is a good thing that I am comfortable enough with my writing to not stress about not having 2 peer reviews. I suppose as long as I continue to do what is expected out of me, then no one can complain. Or maybe I do need to reread my writing to see if it is just painfully dull. Hmmmm...

School Stuff

This week was registration for the spring semester for school. I had not yet decided what I wanted to be when I grow up. So I was poking around on the school site and pulling up the transfer degrees that they offer. I wanted to compare a few of them and take the classes that were listed on as many of them as possible. Then I could put of my big decision. I stumbled on the Elementary Education transfer degree. I didn't even realize that the college offered that. So, I registered for those classes. The ones I took could also go on my Associate of Science, since I had been thinking about nursing for years. But when I found the Elementary Education info I got down right excited. I used to think that my calling in life was to do something with children. I didn' think I'd be able to teach because I waited to go to school for so long and I would be in school forever for that. So I thought about maybe becoming a counselor or a social worker, but never did because I was afraid that when I learned all of the horrible things that adults do to kids it would make me a bitter angry person. I don't want to be that person. So now I am going for my elementary education tranfer. I feel really good about this. Really good. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner so I could be teaching when my daughter was in school.

When registering I almost decided to take 4 classes this semester. I really don't want to go to school forever. I want to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Since I have been taking all online classes I haven't felt really stressed since I can do alot of homework at my office. However, this week, for the first time, I have felt a bit of stress. I have 2 papers due for Lit, one for English, a Math test and 4 discussions to post to. I think that maybe this was the universes way of telling me to slow down and stick with the schedule I have. That if I add any more to my plate I may be overdoing it. So I am taking only 3 classes. But I am compromising with myself :-) and taking a class this summer. Makes me feel a bit better. Maybe next semester I will try taking 2 online and 1 in classroom class. We'll see how I feel about that schedule. Maybe it won't take me 4 years to get a 2 year degree. Ugh. 4 years. I am going to be so old before I finish school. Man, just typing those last few sentences almost takes away my will to continue.

Election '08

Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Night of the Presidential Election

Shelley calls her mom to see who she voted for.

Me: Hi Mom. Who did you vote for?
Mom: I voted for Obama/Palin.
Me: You voted for who?
Mom: Obama/Palin
Me: How did you do that? They aren't even running the same ticket. Palin is running with McCain and Obama is running with Biden.
Mom: Oh, well, then I voted for Obama.
Me: Really, why?
Mom: I just heard a lot of people at work talking about him
Me: Hmmm. So how did you vote on that Mill Levy for the schools.
Mom: I didn't. I only voted for the president.
Me: You didn't vote on anything else? There were like 26 things on the ballot.
Mom: I only voted for Obama.

OMG!!!! Seriously. This is how my mom voted. A completely uneducated voter who has no idea what is going on in the world. She just picked her candidate based on people talking about him. She didn't vote for anything else because she didn't care. Well, I guess I should be glad she didn't vote for the other things. At least then only people who voted knew what they were voting for. Every time there is an election my mom has gone down to the polls to do her civic duty and cast her vote. Apparently she really does just view it as a duty since she has no idea what she is voting for and does no research or makes any effort to educate herself on the goings on of America. I guess since she is 50, she doesn't think that most things are going to affect her anyway. However, I really wish she would wake up. What doesn't affect her now may affect her 9 year old granddaughter by the time she grows up. I wish she would make an educated vote if only to benefit those she loves.
It terrifies me to think about all the people who only voted for one of the candidates because they heard good things about them, or because they didn't want to vote for a minority, or they did want to vote for a minority, or they wanted to vote for a woman to be in office, or they didn't want a woman to be in office.

Controversial writing

This week in my English class we were assigned to read an essay that is posted online that argues for the use of torture. It was a very thought provoking and controversial essay. Here is the link.

http://www.coc.cc.ca.us/departments/philosophy/levin.html

I find Mr. Levins argument to be extremely compelling. He offers examples that many of us can sympathize with. The use of New York City in his essay brings up visions of 9/11. If we could have used torture to discover when the attacks were going to take place in order to prevent that massive loss of life, shouldn't we have done so? I think so. His argument may not be considered ethical by many, but his logic is hard to disagree with. The use of the newborn example is one I can support. If someone stole my child and the only way to get her back was through torture, I'm all for it. I have learned that my own writing is too "safe". I usually choose to not write something that could be deemed as confrontational. I prefer to kind of stay under the radar when it comes to a topic that is this controversial. But I think that most people feel this way. The majority of the population avoids conflict. Most people prefer to "go with the flow" than to "rock the boat". What I found most interesting is that I agreed with the essay. When I first saw the link and read what the essay was going to be about I thought "Are you kidding me? Torture is okay? Who is this moron?". Well, apparently he wasn't kidding, torture is okay and I am the moron. It's very interesting to me that when a point is made with good, clear logic and examples that the average person can relate to your opinion can be rather easily swayed.

Blogging is starting to become a chore

Blogging is really starting to become a chore. Since I know the only people who read this are my boyfriend and a teacher. I already tell the boyfriend everything and so I am really only talking to the teacher. Hi Ms. Geddes. So, back to trying to write this like a diary instead of like I'm actually talking to people.
This last week I finished "The Three Musketeers" and have started on the next in the series, "Twenty Years Later". Not quite as good a read as "Three Musketeers" was, but not a bad book.
I also did manage to finish my informative English paper. I did literally hours of research, but I wasn't displeased with the end result. It did come out a bit clinical, but since it was supposed be informative, it did it's job. I had the worst Math assignment yet. It took me hours and hours to get the study guide done so I could take the test. I spent 4 hours doing Math last night. Ugh. In my Lit class we are reading "The Tempest". Shakespeare is hard for me to read.
I need to spend some more time reading with my kiddo. There are some places in my parenting where I am seriously lacking and encouraging her education is one of them. I always feel so busy, but I guess that when it comes down to it, her education is really more important than mine. I had my chance, now it is her turn. I definitely need to make more of an effort to spend time reading with her. I want to foster the love of reading that I have in her.

English paper undertaking

I have to write an informative essay that ties into a paper we did regarding our personal credos. My personal credo was about how important it is to create family memories. I wrote about my mom's mental illness and how even though most days were a trial, she still managed to create some great memories for us kids. So I decided to do my informative essay about Parenting with Clinical Depression. I have some concerns that this is going to be a much larger undertaking than I am planning. So here I sit at my office, not doing any work, but doing bunches of research to see if perhaps I am getting myself in over my head. I guess we'll see, won't we?