May 2011

“Do you feel a lot of pressure on you to graduate in December?”

My mom posed this question to me over the weekend and it got me thinking. In a way, I do feel pressure but the pressure mainly stems from me. I want to be a college graduate in December. I want to stop living off my mom, get a full-time job and start acting more like an adult. Being a full-time college student and working part-time is no fun at all. I just want to be finished with this phase of my life and make 2011 the year I begin a new era of me.

But that’s not what’s going to happen. It all boils down to the same foreign language crap I’ve been dealing with since I changed my major. Basically, here’s the run-down:

• November 2008: I changed my major from education to journalism. This was also the month I learned that I would be attempting a Bachelor of Arts degree, not a Bachelor of Science which requires 10 hours of a foreign language. With the B.S., taking foreign language in high school would count. I also learned that my financial aid would probably be taken away since I had already attempted so many hours, and that there was an exemption test to exempt out of the language classes. At the time, the exemption test seemed like the best way to go.
• January 2009 – April 2010: I took my journalism classes, with the knowledge of those 10 hours looming in the back of my mind. Still, I did nothing about them and just pretended this pesky little requirement didn’t exist.
• April 2010: Signed up to take Spanish I in the Summer and Spanish II in the Fall, which would keep me at my December graduation date. I wasn’t happy about this decision, as it would lead to another hectic semester when I was hoping to have a little bit of a break.
• May 2010: Found out that I would have to pay $1,600 for my Summer classes, since my financial aid still hadn’t been reinstated, and my scholarship didn’t pay for Summer classes. Freaked out a bit, especially when I received word that I may be dropped from my classes if that money wasn’t paid by the end of the first week of classes. I ended up dropping my Spanish class, and resorting back to learning it myself. Very unhappy with this decision.
• July 24, 2010: Signed up to take Spanish I in the Fall, and Spanish II in the Spring, giving me a May 2011 graduation date.

 

Am I happy about this decision? Yes. Am I at peace? Yes. Am I a procrastinator extraordinaire? Yup.

But I am happy and at peace with this decision, because I think it’s the best one in the long run. I feel less pressure to get everything done in one semester and more relaxed about everything. For the upcoming Fall semester, I’ll have 14 credit hours and we’ll just have to see how it affects my running schedule. I’m keeping it the same for right now.

The good news is that I’ll only have 2 classes during my last semester: Senior Seminar (a class everyone takes during their last semester of college) and Spanish II. That semester will be my easiest yet!

Also, all the fun graduation stuff is gone by the time December rolls around. I’ll get fresh, new, exciting 2011 graduation stuff! At least there’s that.