The dilemma

What do I want to do with my life.
I feel as if I field this question on an all too regular basis.

"So what are your plans for the future Erin? Where do you see this "thing" going?"

I realize that 24.8 years of age, I should have an idea of what I want to do with my life.
I should have at least a bachelors degree.

You don't know how embarrassing it is to realize that this a milestone people younger than me have reached two.years.ago.

MY YOUNGER SISTER HAS ALREADY GRADUATED COLLEGE. 

I shouldn't be embarrassed. I know this.
It's not like I've slacked off.

But people don't know that, and I don't have time to explain the ridiculous situations surrounding my college career each and every time I'm asked.

As I stated in a previous post, one of the perks of my job is nine credit hours free per semester. Something that will be a huge blessing, but I'm conflicted.

When I graduated high school, I really didn't think much about which school I was going to attend. There was a community college in town, and I was more than happy to attend classes there.

I was a shy kid, so the thought of moving away from my parents, family and friends completely terrified me. So the idea of going to a university never really occurred to me.

When I moved to Kn.oxville the options were endless.

There were so many colleges at my disposal, but PSTCC called my name with its offering of a Photography program, so I applied and was accepted there.

Despite financial aid problems, I have absolutely loved my time there.
I love their class selection.
I love their course schedules.
I love their openness when it comes to my guide dog puppies.

Now I'm faced with the affore mentioned dilemma.

During my time at PSTCC I have looked dismissively into classes at UTK, and have never been impressed with the offerings. So much fluff, not enough stuff. In. my. humble opinion. Too much money. Good-bye!

But now... it looks as if they are my only option. Sure, they offer a fee waiver to at least one class at another Board of Regions school ... but I really NEED To take as many classes as possible.

Don't get me wrong, the prestige of going to a university has its draw. A very STRONG draw. But its just that to me, a status symbol.

Argh!

Perhaps I'm just scared of the unknown.
I am prone to doing that.

Oh who am I kidding.
I'm absolultely terrified of the unknown.

What if I don't finish this degree either? Am I destined to be stuck as a recpetionist forever?

frustrated.

You wanna know something frustrating? You don't? Tough. I'm going to tell you anyways.

Frustrating is .... finding out a  week before classes start that your financial aid has been cut off.
Frustrating is ... finding out you have 97 attempted credit hours, and OH YEAH that automatically disqualifies you from receiving more financial aid; and no we don't warn students when they are getting close to that mark, or surpass it, until they attempt MORE.

Oh! You didn't know I was going back to school?
Well maybe not after all..

Any Takers?

What's bad, is when people start referring to their bad days..as "Erin Days". For instance, I was talking to my friend Rebekah, and she starts the conversation out: "So I had an Erin day today..." I knew instantly it was either bizarre, or had something to do with money. Story of my 2010. 


I knew at the beginning of this year,I stated that this would be a "year to remember" but..I'd really held out hope that it would be a GOOD year. So far...I'm just starting to become paranoid about leaving my home! 


So what's happened now? Well I'm driving to work its 7:55AM I have 5 minutes to get through three stop lights and too work. Only the Lord knows why I decided to take this particular route to get too work. Anyway The first light I come to is at the top of a hill, and is green, I slow down since its been green for a while, but am making it through. All of the sudden, I see this black car, which had been sitting at the light, start making a right turn...directly into me! There was nothing I could do but pray she saw me and stopped moving! 


She didn't. 


Nope ran right into the back passenger door, causing a nice little dent. Truthfully, my gut reaction was just to keep going. But since the car is not mine, I knew I had to stop. So I pulled onto the sidewalk and got out too see the damage. The car that hit me pulled into the parking lot and another car stopped in front of me. The first woman got out, handed me her card and told me to contact her if we needed a witness, as she saw the whole thing. *THANK YOU MA'AM!!* 


I then called my father quickly to tell him what happened, being an insurance agent he told me to file a police report, especially if Party B turns anything in too their insurance company; that way we know clearly who was at fault. After getting off the phone with him, the woman turned to me and started babbling about how she didn't know what happened, what to do, she had a court date and was just a tizzy. 


I will admit I really could have cared less, but that wouldn't be very Christ-like , so I allowed her to use my phone, despite really feeling I should just call the police at that point.  15 calls later, I take my phone back call the police, and then let her try her family one more time. Apparently they aren't early risers.


She finally reaches them, and gets their insurance information. At this point I realize the police will probably want my registration and proof of insurance. 


*cue panic* 


*girl dives into car and hauls all of junk out of glove compartment* 


Nothing. Nada.ZILCH. Citation here we come.


Ok, now what. I call my father just as the police officer arrives. Random Thought: I didn't know woman were on the Motorcylce "troup" cool. Anyway thankfully she was nice, and took what information I had, my insurance info, and my license.....After coming to the conclusion that I didn't have the information I needed. I hung up and just waited for the other shoe to drop. 


Police Officer to Party B: Ok ma'am this is a citation for failure to yield at a stop light, blah, blah, blah
Police Officer to Me: Ok this is for your expired tag and no proof of insurance. 
Me: Man.


After that I left and went on to work, were my co-workers we happy to see I was well, and happy to hear it wasn't my fault. I love them. :)


Then I come home. I walk in and I hear a tapping sound at my window, thinking it was one of my siblings being funny, I walk to the window and open it quickly and reveal...........a BIRD!!!!! 


Completely freaked me out of course. Seriously HOW in the WORLD does a bird get into my house?! So after while of ......snap bird is still in  the house...brb... 


7:00pm - Ok so I had to leave for class before I was able to finish this, but as you may have guessed, the bird reappeared.....however I've been home for approximently two hours and no sign of said bird. Hope springs eternal, but I know its waiting for the exact moment to fly out and scare me to death. Probably literally. 


Class Day 1 (English 1010)  - So that was an interesting experience, one my teacher is very young...30ish, and has annoying way of sound interested yet bored at the same time. But I think I'm going to like him..I don't just yet. He made us tell something interesting about ourselves, and halfway through, one young lady pipes up and says "I'm was home-schooled and this is my first day at real school."


*HEAD DESK*


Here's a tip homeschoolers. Never.ever. announce this. It just makes you sounds like you've been holed away in your home, with no socialization. People already assume stupid stuff about homeschoolers....pretty much like they do with every probably. Blonds, Blacks, Mexicans....you get the point but if you walk right in and fulfill what they are thinking...then you will just have to...."deal with it".  


That's just my opinion of course. 


So of course I had to break the stereotype a little, not that I have to try hard to do so...as far as I know there aren't too many black people being home-schooled, that and I'm not exactly whatcha call shy (anymore) and we were very very very involved with our community  through 4-H and the Guide Dog Foundation and our church, other homeschool groups..you name it we were probably in it. 


I typically don't volunteer that I'm a ex-homeschooler right off the bat, I'll let people get used to me, before I "break it too them" then its just "Oh ok" verses..Oooohh......ooookkk. See the difference?
Yeah.
I did feel bad for the girl, as there were some snickers and giggles to that statement, but she'll learn. The hard way unfortunately. *sigh*


Anyway I think I'm all out of words now. 


BTW- If you need me, I'll be in my  bed, with the covers over my head. I don't plan on coming out anytime soon. 


TA TA!

{Guess What?}

I'M GOING TO SCHOOL THIS FALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HEY! Stop rolling your eyes.

Why am I so excited to get back into the grind of school work? 

Because for a while there I wasn't sure I'd be able too. With Financial Aid not coming through, and their office giving less than satisfactory information whenever I took the time to bug them, I was really starting to give up on being able to pay for my LAST semester, much less a new one. But after some intense  prodding from mother dear, I sucked it up, loaded Pompei in the car and drove the 35 minutes out to the main campus, to talk to them in person. An hour later I was on my way home, my debts paid and some extra money headed towards my mailbox! This is a HUGE relief off of my shoulders, I can breathe again! THANK YOU GOD!!! WOOO!!! *happy dance*
Now all I want to know is, why in the world did I not do this earlier?!?!?!? 
A Very Happy,
e.r.i.n.

..But I was in Class!

#66. Start School - Spring 2010

Woooooo!

First day of actual campus classes is over. And a three day weekend to look forward too, just one of the few perks of working at a government/school based job.
Two class introductions are behind me, the first being my online theater class, and second Developmental Writing. I am so ready to get that class behind me, but I think it will be pretty interesting; the instructor for this class seems like someone who not only knows her stuff, but can teach it as well. Since she is the director of the English/writing program she decided today, to do an experiment without class. Most of us hadn't bought our book just yet,so she made the decision to go text book free this semester.Oooh YEAh! After that she told us though, that due to policy reasons we couldn't drop the class, unless there was some kind of emergency reason.

........Wow.

Tuesday I start General Sociology, and Wednesday Introduction to Photography.

My mind set for this semester is different than any other, one because whatever I've been doing up until this point, hasn't been working out so great.

So I think i'm going to have to break down, and follow some rules for this sememster:

• Allotting specific amounts of time, per class, per assignment (In stead of trying to tackle all classes at once)
• Turning off my computer & cell phones during my alloted study times (*Gasp)
• Setting up a study area in my home that doesn't change... (I have the hardest time settling down and working on something if I'm not comfortable)
• Eat healthier 
• Go to be earlier
• Stay in contact with my teachers, and get over my fear of asking questions
• Anyone else have any ideas?

  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I decided not to take Pompei with me today, as I still haven't heard from my job if he can come with me or not, and since I was headed straight there from school, I decided not to risk having to leave him in the vehicle..which is a HUGE "No-NO" with GDF. Plus with the weather like it is, its way too cold for a 9wo puppy!

Looking forward to him accompanying me next week. *fingers crossed*
He is such a good boy.

{My Shopping Buddy}

This weekend, I have to finish up my things with Wilderwood, and began my new project of the month... see #32 on my 101 n 1001.

...But I'm trying to get that $4,000 charge off my account

Wow these titles are starting to get ridiculously long, but anyway...

So it’s Monday. Right?

I'm a complete bundle of nerves due to at least three situations that were being held in the balances as I waited for someone Else's decisions on them. I can barely remember what day it is, and I'm trying to adjust to having a new supervisor at my job.



For some reason I woke up at 7am, and didn't even try to crawl back in bed. (Cause I transferred myself, pillow, blanket and dogs to the couch) I should have than realized this day was starting off with an odd quality too it. But it didn't even cross my mind, as I got myself and the dogs ready for another work day. 

On the way to work I get a call it was my school's number so I hurried to grab it, and keep the car going in the right direction. But by the time I grabbed it, the person had already reached voice mail. 

It was the director of disabilities at PSTCC, and they wanted to know what student I was working my dogs with, and if I could get in contact with them etc...etc...

?!? 

Uh, no...I attempted to call her back right away, but once again got a voice-mail. Grrrr. I gave up and decided I would look up her email address when I got to work, and email her. I sent a long detailed explanation of what I do, and why I was contacting their office. 

(Basically I was just letting them know I was going to be on their campus on a regular basis, and wondered if they minded contacting my teachers, as that's what they did at AB-TECH. I was asking to bring the dog, since TN has this lovely law, which gives us puppy raiser the same access as fully trained guides.)

 Once again I was sent an email asking which student I was working with.....and to which law was I referring too? So I once again plainly stated what it was I was doing, provided the links and that they wanted.

Welll.....They haven't ever worked with a student that had a service dog, and didn't have a disability? But she said she'd forward it to their ADA and Security Guard People. 


Haven't heard from them since.

After work, I decided to get some shopping therapy in, before I had to run home, and get ready for choir practice.So I'm browsing through J.C. Penny's clearance stuff, when I get a call from my mother reminding me to pay for my classes, as the deadline was that day. I had until 6:30PM to get that done...it was about 4 pm at that time, so I hurried a little bit more, bought six shirts, and headed home.

The dogs needed exercise, so before I checked my class balances, I ran them for about 30 minutes, reveling in the fact, that we could be out there without getting frostbite.

When I finally sat down and went to confirm my attendance(aka pay for my classes)...I was in for a shock.Apparently I was classified as an out of state student, and there were some fees as a result of that. Something to the tune of $4k+ (btw WHY do they use a k to represent a thousand!?)

 

Plus the $1,000k of other fees.

Mega Panic Session, calls to my mom, the Cashiers Office, Records office, back to my parents...Apparently since I hadn't lived in TN for two consecutive years, I didn't qualify as an in state student. BUT I could prove my residency if my parents had claimed me as a dependent on their taxes. And I could get it to them by Tuesday, and still be able to confirm my attendance.

More phone conversations.

Nope. They sure enough hadn’t….

"Well we can set you up with a payment plan; you can pay half now, and two more payments later."

!?!?!?

By this time, we had other things to attend to, and since we were given a little more leeway to think things through. I got up and went about my evening. 

I can’t really say that I was stressed or even worried really. I know God is in control, and I know the steps he’s lead me to take up until this point. I was confident that he was going to make a way. Because that’s his specialty ya know!? But the thing was, I knew we had to take some action as well…but where what was the right one!?

Tuesday morning, I got up early, and got back on the phone with the school. Between my mother and I , we were able to get find out that one of the ladies, that was so helpful to my mom last year, was at the Magnolia Campus. So we both jumped into our respective vehicles and headed to that campus. My mom made it before I did. (Hey had to feed the baby lunch, and get the other dogs potty’ed before I could leave), and was able to get into the ladies office JUST before a line started forming down the hallway. (A God thing for sure. Anyone want to argue?)

Anyway when Pompei and I arrived, they’d already come up with a plan, to prove my residency. Since I’d filed my taxes to a TN address that would be enough to prove I’d been here. *wooooooshhh* Huge sigh of relief. I could pay the other fee, until FA came through, with the O.O.S. fee gone.

We kind of dazedly followed our “angel” out of her office, as she took Pompei to see some of her co-workers. Then I tore home to get that information, gave it to my mom, who was than took it out to the main campus and give it directly to the Records person. (Hey I had to work or i would have done it)

Three hours later, that deed was done, and the fees taken off my account. And as of today I have confirmed my attendance and am several hundreds of dollars poorer. (Good-bye Pontiac Vibe *sniff*)

Woooooooooooooooooot!!!

And it gets better!

Today I received a lovely email from the ADA office, stating that Pompei would indeed be allowed in the campus as the law states, and I just needed to bring my “credentials” and a list of my instructors and they would let everyone involved know that there would a dog in their class. 

Wow! 

It feels silly to be stunned when you asked God to do something and he does, but indeed I am.

A College Student

It is Finished!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!

Ok so I thought Monday was bad, but today has been a doozy, I won't go into all the boring details, but I was at one of the campus's for at least 5 hours. But is finished, I am taking on a 12 credit hour load this semester, which is four classes. I'm hoping that FA will only require 9 credits and I can drop one class. And that will even out my work schedule.

My Math classes and Public Speaking were transferable, so don't have to take those again.

And because I did very poorly in English I had to take the placement test for that, I did great on the reading, but my Writing was two points away from being passable. GRRR!

So I have to take a Writing/English Course, and for some reason I can't even start any other classes in my major until I get that completed, so we kind of had to browse around and FIND something for me to do. Though I am proud that I stuck to my guns, and didn't get a class before 9AM (my sister had classes at 7:30AM last semester..KArAZy! I can't even eat that early much less THINK!?) So heres what I got.

Spring 2010 

• MWF - Developmental Writing [9:40AM - 10:35AM] what is up with these times??
  
• MW - Introduction to Photography [10:45AM - 12:05PM] Just going from one class to another
• Tuesday - General Sociology - [12:25pm - 1:45pm] Hoping to drop this class cause this just messes up the schedule. 
• Online - Introduction to Theatre 
  

 Tomorrow my boss and I get to hash out a new schedule. Yay. I am just SO relieved this is over.

I have spoken via voice-mail, with the Disabilities Person at PSTCC, and doesn't look like their will be a problem with the puppies coming with me. Least I'm taking him bright and early Friday and they beststa not say anything!!! :)