Back to School Saga: Week 2

So a week ago today, Tom and I are getting all of our last minute details in order. He commandeered our son’s backpack from last year, filled it with his books, pens, notebook. We went online to check the schedules, and lo and behold: his class had been switched from Tuesday evenings for three hours to Monday and Wednesday evenings for an hour and 15 minutes. Glad we looked.

In the giddiness that comes with a new adventure, and the confidence of knowing you are doing the right thing for yourself and your family, we decided at the last moment to take a study skills course in addition to the courses for which we already registered. Feeling excited and a bit nervous, we put everyone to bed early and got ready for the new school year.

Monday morning, 7 a.m. found me in my computer skills class. Now, I am fairly decent on the computer, but all I know is what I need to know to get by with what I do. In today’s techno-savvy world, I have felt somewhat archaic… until this class. I am not the least skilled, and not the most either. It felt good to be back in class.

Then it was off to work. About lunch time I logged into our school website, to the section that we use for our assignment completion, instruction, etc. Or at least I tried.

My logon was not working, couldn’t access my classes, three of which are online only, and began to feel the anxiety. To compound that, I was not able to remember my logon for my school email either; the email my instructors would be using to contact me. By the time I got home, I was concerned. What if I couldn’t get in and there was something due? What if my math class is too much (I’ll be honest, I stink at math)? What if I can’t handle all of the homework?

We rushed dinner onto the table, and Tom took off to get to his class. I received email from the school’s help desk in my ymail account and was able to access my assignments and email. Tom came home and he had the same panicked look that I had worn most of the day. We looked at each other and asked “What have we gotten ourselves into?”

It has been many years between the last time we were in a college class room, and things have changed. Yesterday was our math class. We have the class session from 8 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. each Saturday. And my morning was starting out rough.

I was running late, and I hate feeling rushed. I thought we were going bohemian, just get up, brush our teeth, grab coffee and a pop tart on the way out, and get to class. Tom had other ideas. “Are you going to shower,” he asked me.

“Are you?” I was surprised. Quickly I rushed through the motions of making myself look less scary. Then we fried some eggs. My yolk broke. Got to class, and began to pull my text and notebooks out of my bag, grabbed two mechanical pencils, neither of which would write and then I noticed that the pages of my notebook were wrinkled, having been exposed to liquid.. Our dog apparently didn’t make it through the night and relieved himself on my canvas bag, which had dried. I was about to lose it. Then Tom, becoming frustrated with me, told me I needed to turn it around, or my whole day was going to be ruined. I was becoming increasingly hostile. At that point I was ready to just get up and walk home. Then true to form, in the way that never ceases to amaze me, Tom turned to me and offered me his notebook. He always finds a way to put things in perspective, to solve the issue that would otherwise unnerve me, even when it is not worth the upset I am investing.

We were pleasantly surprised that the instructor told us that class rarely goes past 10, and went over all the online tools available to us. All of our homework and quizzes are submitted electronically. This was cool. I could probably deal with algebra in this capacity. In fact, had they had this when I was in high school, I would not be in the lower level class now. But according to my kids, I was busy fending off dinosaurs when I was in high school, so how could they have had this technology? We were out of class by nine a.m.

We came home, did chores, made soup for dinner, completed homework and even found time for a nap. Yeah, I think we can do this.


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