My First Class

When I took Credentials many moons ago to work in the Early Childhood Education field, I had no idea that it would lead me to a career that I've been doing for the last 10 years. At the time, I had been out of college for only a few years. I was still in the "groove" so to speak. I knew the lingo. Computers weren't *real* big yet. I mean they were, but not really.

Fast Forward to November when I decided I wanted to take some Administrative courses in Education. These two classes are commonly called Admin 1 & 2. First thing I thought was that they would be in two different semesters. I really didn't want to spend more than one semester in school, but it was the way it was. Well imagine my surprise (delightful yet terrifying) when I discovered that this semester they've decided to fast track the program. So now instead of having it in two different semesters, they are in one semester. So what would normally take 16 weeks to learn, will be fast tracked into 8 weeks. What a scary thought for a normal student, much less for me. Who let's face it: I graduated with my bachelors degree in 1999. That's a long time ago folks.

I had a little bit of trouble getting the class scheduled, but things were going smoothly. Fastforward to 3:30 today. 2 and 1/2 hours before my class. The phone rings. It's a lady with the department saying that I can't take tonight's class because I haven't had this other class. So I'm fairly calm and ask what can I do in order to be able to take tonight's class. She tells me and within 20 minutes I'm in her office with an add form in hand and hoofing it over to the registrar's office.

Now this part truly terrifies me because at Western, I once waited at the add/drop line for a whopping 7 hours. Well the luck was with me my friends because there was not a single person in line! The man added my class and I headed off to pay for it. Can you believe it? There wasn't a single person in that line either! I was beginning to feel a little lucky. Then I turned the corner and saw the line to the bookstore.

I decided to be positive and get in line and not complain. Wouldn't you believe it I got between two negative nelly's and I thought, "I'm so glad that's not me anymore." I tried to uplift them and remind them that there were worse things than waiting in line and at least we had a wall to lean on. I bet I annoyed the mess out of them. We finally made it in the store and got our books and left. I had about 40 minutes to spare for my class so I sat down and started chatting it up with a couple of people sitting in the lobby.

Cause apparently that's what Lyme has done for me - given me a confidence just to talk to strangers and be myself no matter what.

Class went well. However, all this technology has me screaming. Hopefully, I'll do just fine.

Let's just hope the Lyme brain can stay away during this crazy time of my life.

Also say a little prayer for a college student I saw today. She must have been 18 years old and taking her very first college class because she walked into the building I was in (this was the very first time I had even walked in there). She was shaking like a leaf and asked very timidly if we knew where a class was. We directed her to where we thought it might be and as soon as she left, we all three said --- that poor thing looked nervous. So either it was her first class or ... she was overwhelmed by all of her other classes. So lift up this unknown college student.