I finally did it. I started college, again. The first time around I’m not even sure what I thought I was going to do, study, or be when I grew up. Since I’ve worked in a college environment for so many years and spent most of my days encouraging people that going back to school was the way to go I found myself becoming such a complete hypocrite. Why wouldn’t I go back to school when I really didn’t have to pay for it? When I think about this it makes me feel like I’m just learning to swim. I remember when I was really young and I and my brothers had swimming lessons during the summer. I recall that terrifying feeling of having to jump into the 12 foot pool. Even know it makes me breathe faster and makes my heart pound faster.
The first class I took was ASP100 – Skills for Success. In one way I thought this was going to be a cake walk. I’m 46 years old. What could possibly be challenging about this class? What was I going to gain from this class? Open mouth, insert foot.
This is probably the best class anyone could take.
Even though it has been a review of things I do every single day, it has been an eye opening and challenging experience. I have learned how to write cover letters for job applications which has always been intimidating to me.
I have learned that although I thought that English was one of my better subjects that I don’t know as much as I thought. Verbs, adverbs………oy vey! I need work on that. I thought it was kind of ironic that I aced the whole sentence/run on sentence thing. Actually I was relieved that those four tests were over and I didn’t completely fail them.
Outside of the fact that this class has made me review skills from time management (because really, who doesn’t like to procrastinate?), reading skills, writing skills what this class made me do was to step outside of my comfort zone. I learned how to use Powerpoint. Okay, this may not be the biggest accomplishment in the world but it was not that many years ago when the joke in the family was, “Mom can’t even get on the internet without help from a teenager.”
Who would have thought that I’d be taking college classes online much less creating PowerPoint presentations? I got some really great grades on those presentations, too. I was proud of myself for those A’s. But what I really took away from doing the work and getting the grades was what I didn’t do on those projects. I learned through my mistakes how to make them better the next time. I learned that good is not good enough for me. I learned that I have much more talent than I gave myself credit for.
I learned how to put music to PowerPoint. There was no one to guide me but Mr. Google and my web searches. There is so much information out there if we just look for it.
I learned that I can learn.
Having taken Skills for Success has given me insight as to what being a student involves. I feel that I can talk to incoming students about succeeding in class; prioritizing and managing their time and making their dreams come true. I have a right to say these things to them now.
I am that student.
The first class I took was ASP100 – Skills for Success. In one way I thought this was going to be a cake walk. I’m 46 years old. What could possibly be challenging about this class? What was I going to gain from this class? Open mouth, insert foot.
This is probably the best class anyone could take.
Even though it has been a review of things I do every single day, it has been an eye opening and challenging experience. I have learned how to write cover letters for job applications which has always been intimidating to me.
I have learned that although I thought that English was one of my better subjects that I don’t know as much as I thought. Verbs, adverbs………oy vey! I need work on that. I thought it was kind of ironic that I aced the whole sentence/run on sentence thing. Actually I was relieved that those four tests were over and I didn’t completely fail them.
Outside of the fact that this class has made me review skills from time management (because really, who doesn’t like to procrastinate?), reading skills, writing skills what this class made me do was to step outside of my comfort zone. I learned how to use Powerpoint. Okay, this may not be the biggest accomplishment in the world but it was not that many years ago when the joke in the family was, “Mom can’t even get on the internet without help from a teenager.”
Who would have thought that I’d be taking college classes online much less creating PowerPoint presentations? I got some really great grades on those presentations, too. I was proud of myself for those A’s. But what I really took away from doing the work and getting the grades was what I didn’t do on those projects. I learned through my mistakes how to make them better the next time. I learned that good is not good enough for me. I learned that I have much more talent than I gave myself credit for.
I learned how to put music to PowerPoint. There was no one to guide me but Mr. Google and my web searches. There is so much information out there if we just look for it.
I learned that I can learn.
Having taken Skills for Success has given me insight as to what being a student involves. I feel that I can talk to incoming students about succeeding in class; prioritizing and managing their time and making their dreams come true. I have a right to say these things to them now.
I am that student.
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