On my way to the BA!

With the AA now behind me (thank you math god!) and the BA looking me dead in the face, I have to stay organized. I was generally a good student anyhow so this is not a new proclamation or anything, but with this semester I am undertaking a full course load on top of working a 40 hour workweek (and the kids and general life stuff). I cannot risk assignments slipping up on me. I spent a good portion of my morning searching for an ideal student academic planner. I have realized there really isn’t one. I have a planner on my desk I never used for work so I scooped it up to use for school.

The classes are interesting and I am enjoying them so far (day 3!) but they are extremely busy classes. Every single day I have something due. I may be able to take Sundays off, maybe. The structure of my university (so excited to be in a real university!) is 8 week courses instead of the traditional 16 weeks. So I have half the time to do just as much work. I like this process actually. Being busy keeps me focused. With no time to procrastinate then I can’t find a way to do so.

Two classes at a time, 8 weeks each. Then the very next day I start the next 8 weeks for the next two classes. This makes 12 credit hours in 16 weeks which is standard academic normality. At this rate (fall and spring) I will graduate spring of 2013. However, I am not a student who takes summers off unless it is because of financial reasons (financial aid can be tricky about summers). If I can get my courses covered financially I will go during the summers too and that will dramatically change my graduation date. I’ll know more on this later.

Side note: I wish I was sharing all this with Linda. I really wish her boyfriend hadn’t kicked me out of her life. I’m learning to live without her, but I miss her.

The dreaded math beast has been slain!

That’s right folks, I did it. I passed my last math class. I got a C. In any other class I would be very disappointed, but given the amount of times math has bested me – I envision the C as powerful as the A.

Math has been my nemesis for the duration of my college education. It reared its ugly head in the 4^th grade when we started fractions and it only tightened its grip on me from there. I struggled many times, I even drowned a few. Now, in this class, my last time being thrown into the ocean with sharks, I have made it safely to shore.

Not only is this a relief for me, but I feel stronger. No, I don’t feel stronger because I am finished.. I feel stronger because I can look back and say “I did it.” Nobody did it for me. I did that (with the help of a marvelous tutor I must admit). I was stronger and smarter than I feared I was. Math for me has been not only a challenge of the actual content, but a challenge of my own will to continue. Many times I threw my hands in the air and said I was done with college. “I am happy with my job, I aspire to be a novelist..so screw math.” But then ultimately the other voice would get louder. It was my Klingon voice reminding me that there is no honor in quitting. It was the voice reminding me that giving up was not an option for me. It reminded me that I could slay the math beast.

And slay it I did.

From here on out I focus on things in my field.  I am going into psychology. There are many opportunities to utilize this degree. I likely will not be a counselor or any sort. I will decide where to go later, but for now I am just glad to have those core classes over. Well, I have one more lit class, but otherwise I am done with cores.

Let’s see what happens next.   I’m excited for the next journey!

Universal languages

I’m a writer. It is the gift I was given and I am grateful for it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Still, I have to wonder what I would do with a different talent: specifically music. When I was younger I chose music to listen to based on its lyrics (classical music is a whole other blog post). Lyrics to music drove me. I guess that comes from me being a writer. R&B, metal, and everything in-between (save for country – I could never get into that)..it all was good music to me if the lyrics were speaking to me.

Now that I am older, and living with less angst than a teenager, I haven’t paid attention to lyrics as much lately. What I have noticed is the music tone and the emotion of the singer. I say this because some of the music that drives me lately is not even in English (my only language unless you include Hawaiian pidgen). Daichi Miura has become the most played on my iTunes (or windows media music player at work). Some of his chorus is in English but mostly he sings in Japanese. I cannot get enough of him. His emotion speaks to me when his words cannot.

There are more examples of music not in my native language but I want to focus on Daichi here. The emotion itself gives some indication to the intention of the song. You can tell it is heartbreaking by the time he is half way through the first verse. He speaks to your heart without speaking to your linguistic skills.

As a writer I can’t do that. I have to speak your language for you to have any idea what I am trying to convey. But musicians, they have an entirely different canvas in which to paint you a picture of their message. I envy them a little.

I wouldn’t give up writing for anything, please do understand that. But still, I often wonder what I would do as a singer or a musician. I suppose if I sang as much as I write I would drive everyone around me a little insane. Yeah, writing is definitely for me.

goals

We all need them. I have many. Of course executing the goals are an entirely different thing.
Currently Takka City is a completed draft. I have worked on editing it several times. It is still in need of much editing. I even went so far as to rewrite it in first person from Theace’s perspective but it brought up far too many plot challenges. In the end I am staying with it as it is in 3rd person. Just - with more editing.

My goal is to have Takka City edited from start to finish by the time summer arrives. Will this happen? Who knows. What I do know is that sometimes my problem in life is lack of a deadline. I now have one.

Do you find lack of a deadline in your life (personal or professional) to be an issue?

quote of the day

To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.
~Anne Rice