Stace and finishing school online

  

  I am 26 and I still haven't graduated from college. A part of the problem was that I didn't know which school I wanted to go to so I kind of bounced around a bit doing a summer semester here and another semester there. The problem with bouncing around a ton is that you lose credits because each school is different on what they will take. Finally, when I was like 19 or 20 I got accepted into BYUI and was wanting to try and take my education more seriously.  I started going to BYUI (Brigham Young University Idaho) but the problem was I still didn't know what to major in. Why was I going to school? I've never been super ambitious, never had a great love for anything and, really,I don't like having a job. So I was just going to school with no plan.

   As you can see doing school with no plan doesn't really work out great because like I said 26 and still no degree. Well, I did a few semesters there and was barely starting to get an idea of what I wanted to graduate in. I had finally decided to get my degree in English with an emphasis on Literary Studies because reading is what I like to do and that is basically what the major was. I met Jared we got married and moved around a ton and didn't do school. In those years the focus was trying to get Jared back to school and trying to figure out where. Finally we ended up back at BYUI and Jared is on his last semester and is going to graduate in July (yay!). But what about my schooling?

    When we first moved back I decided to see about finishing my degree as well but it was a little more difficult now because I have a nice little boy and we wanted to have another child soon. Turns out I would not be able to graduate when Jared could and we did not want my schooling to hinder his and then stop him from getting a good job after. So, I decided to finish my degree online.

   There are big pros and cons with getting an online degree. A big pro is that I can do my school around my schedule and I can travel and still do my school and not worry about missing classes or anything. A huge con is that you cannot take as many credits a semester as you could going to actual classes so the graduating process is even longer. And, at least through BYUI, you are very limited on what you can get your degree in online. I met with a school counselor and we decided, with the credits I already had, that I would graduate fastest with my major as University Studies and two minors one is English and the other is Marriage and Family. Lame right? What kind of job could I get with that? I mean, that was kind of the point of getting my degree was in case something happened to Jared or he lost his job or something I could get a job that would help provide for the family. You know something better then like just a retail job. 

    I've been doing the online classes for a year and sometimes it can be really frustrating. I have gotten some really pain in the butt teachers, but that happens anyway, and its just going so slow. The most credits I've taken a semester is 5 (two classes) when doing online you can't look at credits anymore but just focus on how many classes there are left. I have about 8 classes left and then I'm done. Sounds simple right? No. It is still going to take me years to finish because I am limited on how many classes I can take a semester and this year I am only doing one semester because last semester I was in the first trimester, no thanks, and next semester I will have a new born, again no thanks.

  

   Should I keep going? Should I even bother? I asked myself those questions just recently because my teacher has already been completely ridiculous and it is barely the third week of the semester. Is getting a degree really so important? Especially one as lame as mine? I finally decided, after talking with Steph, my husband, my parents and anyone who could share different perspectives, I decided that yes getting my degree was important. I have no idea if I will ever use it but you know what maybe I will and I know that I will feel good about myself to finish what I started and to just do it and be able to say that I did. I also really want to be an example for my children because I want them to go to school and get degrees also.

    Education is important, While my education has not gone exactly as I thought it would I am still really grateful to have the opportunity to finish my schooling and be home with special ones. I do wish I had been smarter when first starting school, like just going to one school and meeting with school counselors more often to help lead me on the right path, maybe things would be different. But, this is what I've decided to do and it can be pretty annoying and difficult but I truly believe its worth it.