School This Semester: What I Learned

Hi everyone. I feel human again. I finished up all my school stuff on Friday and I've been playing non-stop. I probably should do a little cleaning, but it feels like I have twenty Christmas projects I want to get to. I've recently learned how to knit, so pictures will be coming soon. Probably after Christmas, so I don't spoil any surprises.

This little post is to help me remember to never, ever go to school full-time again. I had 13 credits and six classes. Here are a few things I learned this semester:

1. I cannot let things go. I mentally cannot move past things until I've explored every corner and peeked under all the beds, even when it puts me into sneezing fits, metaphorically. And poor David ends up with mucus covering his face. Metaphorically. The man is a saint and has listened to more rants since early September than one person should ever have to listen to. And he didn't tell me to shut up once.
   
2. Never write two sentences when you can write five or six or sometimes twenty-five. This relates to number one. I cannot leave things alone and I must pick at them until they bleed.
   
3. I cannot do more than one thing at once. I am so grateful to my mother, who took my kids for most of the day (from about 9:00 to 1:00 most days) and sometimes brought me down grilled sandwiches for lunch. I do not transition easily between focusing on school and being a good mother. Luckily, I was able to get most of my stuff done in the morning and then I could do things here and there when I had the kids again and not loose my mind when the children asked for the eightieth time if they could have a drink of water or if I could get the legos down. Both my mom and David have been tremendously supportive. I appreciate their sacrifices so I could work on my schooling.
   
4. It is possible for me to get sick of giving my opinion. I know it might sound hard to believe, but it's true. There were a string of weeks where the last things left on my list were writing what I thought about things. This was hard, because see number one and number two. I could not bring myself to BS an answer. Something that has changed since I went to school a few years ago.
5. My butt starts to hurt if I sit on it too long.
6. Related to number 5, I have to exercise, especially when stressed, or I cannot cope. I like to exercise. Who knew?
7. I hate the internet. I hate group work. The end.
8. I'm still highly motivated.
   
9. Something that has changed is that I don't procrastinate nearly as much as I used to. I got in the habit of the beginning of the semester of making a weekly list, then making daily lists from that list and then going through them. By the end of the semester, I wasn't even skipping around, just methodically working through them. For someone who does most things by what mood I'm in, this is some huge growth. Maybe it will translate to housework? Here's hoping.
   
10. I'm still a brown-noser and an overachiever. I might have read two or three books that were related to my coursework but not required by it. Just because I was interested in the subject.
11. I thought I had lost some IQ points over the past few years. School gave my brain a tune-up and it works nearly as well as it did before I had children.
12. I love school.

That's my list. I'm pretty sure I won't need a reminder, but just in case I do, well, there it is. I have 10 classes left (so about 27 credits) until I earn my bachelor's, but I think I'm going to break it down into smaller chunks. A lot depends on whether they will be offering enough sections of the classes to get what I need. For some reason, it hasn't been letting register when I should be able to for my credit level, so I only got into one class next semester. They are only offering two more I need, so we will see if I can sneak into them. If not, I have a back-up plan, but I'd rather not use it.

I did really well. Final grades haven't posted, but I know a few of them and I'm happy with how I did. I will let you know, because dang it, I worked my butt off for those grades and I think I've earned some bragging rights.