Spring quarter is finally over! It felt like a sprint from the first week through the last day. never giving me a chance to stop and catch my breath. I wish I could say that I learned a lot. My grades seem to indicate that I did, but sitting here enjoying not having class today... I can't remember a thing I learned. I keep wanting to call this spring break, but no, this is my meager summer break.

Here they are, the spring grades:

• Microbiology 4.0
• Organic Chemistry 4.0
• Keyboarding 4.0

Yippee, another quarter I have not failed. I wonder when I will realize I'm not likely to totally flunk out of school?

This quarter has been harder than I anticipated. I suggest to everyone I meet on the path to nursing school.... don't take these classes together (organic chem and microbiology). Two challenging classes that don't tie in together with complementing information. Sure, they both are pulling heavily from information you learned in your previous biology and chemistry classes, but they aren't complementing each other. Both instructors are great, and I am learning a lot, but looking back I see better ways to have combined my classes.

Spring quarter is almost over! Then on to summer. Thankfully with just filler classes to make me look better to nursing programs. I'm almost done with my must have classes!!

Who knew I would be good at microbiology? The topic doesn't particularly interest me. In fact, I'm generally uncomfortable with a lot of the "what we can do and what we might be able to do soon" discussions surrounding this topic. I know I'm the oddball, but I don't necessarily think it's a good thing we can take a multivitamin when we eat a carrot because it has been genetically modified to have all these extra vitamins in them. In fact, genetic modification as a whole just seems very wrong to me. I am interested in diseases and disease processes. Learning the techniques used to identify a bacteria is interesting, though something I don't foresee utilizing in my career. Typically, if I'm not interested in a subject, I don't excel at the subject. So color me shocked that I currently have the second highest grade in the class after our first two exams.

As for organic chemistry...I'm fairly convinced that chemists have created this crazy naming system just to create job security for themselves. The long list of rules you must go through just to identify that the strange little drawing you are looking at is a 1,3-dimethylpentane, just seems a bit silly. And I dread lab every week. It seems you cannot have an organic chem lab experiment that doesn't include smells that you wish you couldn't smell while in the lab, and your nose burning and unable to smell anything else for days. There are several of us who have experienced nose bleeds, burning nostrils and lost ability to smell each week. And for what? So we can see that cyclohexene will react in the presence of bromine? And I will use this when?? Exactly, just as I assumed.

I do enjoy being at the end of my pre-reqs. And I also enjoy being known as someone who is competent in science. Hearing that more and more of my former instructors are sending struggling students to find me is a nice ego boost.

Microbiology seems to be a pretty standard pre-req for most all RN programs, I just can't figure out why. What are we learning in this class that we are going to utilize in our careers? I doubt I will find myself staining a slide of e-coli in the next 5 years. Maybe I'm wrong though. Don't get me wrong, I find the information interesting. And watching the people at the lab station across from you attempting to set themselves on fire day after day is always amusing. And really, I think what it comes down to, microbiology that nursing programs use to weed out those that can't candle the higher level sciences.

After several promptings by my instructors I filled out the application for tutoring. It seems that many of my former instructors would like me to impart some of my knowledge into future students. And it pays well, so why not? Well, because the supplemental instruction (SI) instructor for A&P doesn't want there to be tutors in the tutoring center, she wants students to be forced into using the SI. This would be great, but the SI instructor only offers one time slot twice a week, and that time slot leaves students in conflict with their other classes. This was something that frustrated me when I was in A&P, the SI was offered during the same time as Chemistry, so I was essentially forced to choose between getting more practice in A&P or attending my chemistry class. So, college politics being what they are, I am now in a tug of war between instructors and SI. The instructors want me to come to their classes personally and round up the students who are interested in tutoring. I am sure this would not cause warm and fuzzy feelings with SI. Not to mention, if the tutoring center doesn't decide to go ahead and override the SI people and hire me anyway, I would essentially be signing myself up to tutor large numbers of people for free. And that wasn't really my goal.

Ok, time to polish my essay for this years scholarships.... it's due tonight by 5!

This is the quarter I've been dreading since the first time I sat down with a adviser to plan out my pre-reqs. The very idea of a quarter of microbiology and organic chemistry made my heart beat a little faster. Now it's here, and instead of voices in my head, I'm hearing action music as I dash from one thing to the next trying to keep my head above water.

I have never been a student that had to put in the required hours of studying. It's not fair, but true. I tend to need to study less than many other students. This quarter I'm living with my books. Picking away at pre-test questions for micro, writing another lab report for o-chem, taking a stab at another problem from my o-chem homework.

I keep hoping that I'm going to fall into a routine and it will all feel more manageable. I think the reality is I will be hearing action music in my head for the next 7 weeks, and will hopefully slide out of finals week knowing I can take on more than I thought.

I still haven't even looked at my keyboarding stuff... that's a bad thing, right?

11pm on sunday night and spring break is over. For some reason I thought spring break was going to be longer than one week. Maybe universities have a longer spring break? At any rate, tomorrow we return to class. This quarter will bring me to Microbiology, Organic Chemistry and Keyboarding. It could be a rough quarter. I have two instructors that I've had before and I'm not dreading having to spend another quarter with either of them... so let's hope all will go well.

Grades from last quarter:

A&P 4.0
Nutrition 4.0
ECE Pass

Cumulative gpa is 3.92, I should be in good shape for getting into TCC. Not my first choice school, but I like feeling like I have a solid back up plan.

Wahoo, another quarter down. And I'm expecting good grades too! I'm starting to feel nervous at the idea that in one more quarter I will be applying to nursing programs. I'm so ready, and yet not, all at the same time.

As silly as it sounds, I couldn't bring myself to sell back my A&P book or lab manual. I'm telling myself that it will be a good reference while I am in nursing school. I think part of it is that I've never put as much effort into any class before. I'm happy it's over, and yet, find myself also wishing A&P was a 3 quarter class. It feels like there is still so much we didn't cover.

Nutrition is over, and I am quite tickled to have walked out of that class with the highest grade. It was fund having Woods for an instructor again, and I allowed myself to come out of my shell and be more outspoken in that class than I am in my others. He is writing me a letter of recommendation for my nursing applications.

I'm so happy to be on spring break! The house will get cleaned, and I will take naps. And I need to work on memorizing the functional groups for organic chemistry. Other than that, I'm making no promises.

Next quarter is Microbiology, Organic Chemistry and Keyboarding.

For the first time in the last two quarters I feel like I have a good routine going. Ok, so I never made time to get groceries last week and we were without milk for 2 days, but still. I think I have figured out what I need to do to get the grade I need out of A&P, and have found a balance of getting things done ahead of time for Nutrition so I'm not cramming the night before. Of course, we have less than 3 weeks left in the quarter so I'm not going to be enjoying my better schedule for long.

I'm still very frustrated with A&P. Yes, I am going to have a good grade in this class. Most likely not the 4.0 I really want, but certainly above a 3.5 and for this level class that's nothing to shake a stick at. However, the way I'm getting that grade leaves me feeling a little dirty. This class as a whole is failing. We are either failing to understand what the teacher is instructing on, or we are failing to be able to figure out what he is asking on tests. The most likely thought is that it's a combination of both. On our last test the class average was 56%. That is unbelievable in a 200 level class. This is not a class full of slacker students who don't care what their grade is; it is a room full of pre-med, in one way or another. We are all either pre nursing, pre dr, pre pharmacist, pre dental. We are all heading for highly competitive medical programs. And we are all at the end of our pre-reqs, we've done lots of other classes, we know how to study and we don't expect to be handed easy grades. So, I don't have to get great grades on my tests to earn a good grade, I just have to do enough to be above the curve and allow the curve to push me up to the higher grade. And I'm worried that while this will look ok on paper, I'm not learning all I need to know to be successful in my nursing program, and in my career. I don't want to be the nurse that no one wants to care for their family.

I registered last week for my spring quarter classes. Microbiology, with my A&P instructor from last quarter. Organic chemistry from my Chem 100 instructor. And I'm rounding out my credits with a keyboarding class, one credit that I wont learn much from, but I will allow me to remain full time status. While I am really looking forward to this quarter, Mike is dreading it. Our organic chem class is from 5-10pm. Yawn. I love the night classes, he just wants to go home and go to bed. But it's the only one being offered this quarter... some of our science instructors are taking leaves, and/or are trying to teach a much lighter class load. I'm hoping this works in my favor.