Graduated!

Okay so after almost six years I can finally say I have a bachelors degree! I didn't walk or attend commencement, but I did complete my education and its a milestone. Back in February when we found out we were having a baby, I was so burnt out from going to school year round that I talked to Kent about not finishing out the next two semesters and just jumping right into medical transcription so I would have a job. Of course to him that didn't sound logical and he encouraged me to finish and I am so glad I did. This morning I reflected on some of the class rooms I have been in and how much I really have learned from a formal education. First semester at BYU, excited, overwhelmed, ambitious. I signed up for honors courses and participated in Freshman Academy and had a job at the BYU Bookstore. I lived with my fabulous aunt, Kamilla and got to be there as she dated Nick. I attended a real singles ward and FHE group and felt like a little kid with no social skills. I rode the UTA bus and got lost. I experienced so many changes and barely got through finals before taking a break from school and working for a semester till I transfered to BYU-I. Excited again, I signed up for English classes and studied Frankenstein and grammar and felt disappointed. So I took a foods class and a family relationships class along with generals and got excited again with the skills I was learning. But I couldn't major in child development or Home Ec? So I took more English classes, Shakespeare and literary interpretation. Disappointed again and not able to analyze and write like all the other English majors, I took Money Mangaement and parenting as I decided to minor in marriage and family skills. Insert an 18 month mission in their somewhere. Then I realized I better figure out this English thing or not and I took a communication writing class that about killed me as the teacher told me my words were too flowery and off topic. (Guess I can interprete literature and ideas after all). So how could I combine my love of words with a job other than reading great works of literature to high school students?(I will never read Frankenstein again). Then my grandpa published a book and my mom was telling me about how he paid an editor to go over the book and prepare it for publication. A light bulb went on and I looked into the English emphasis of Editing and Professional Writing. To good to be true, I had found my niche. I could work with words as a science (spelling, puctuation, structure) and not as an art where I wrote creatively and analyzed life (trust me I do that enough with my own life). So I took an editing class which I enjoyed and then got caught in the wonderful whirlwind of steady dating, engagement and marriage. I had no desire to finish school, but I plugged along with mediocre grades and at the point where we were expecting a baby, I didn't quit but I opted for a university studies degree so that I could graduate without an internship, capstone, and three more upper level English classes. So while I am not a true graduate of the English department, I will definitely use those skills as a medical transcriptionist. So it has all worked out for the best!

This is a long post but it was for me.