I started this blog for a couple reasons. First, I wanted to be able to look back and see what I have accomplished. I don't share a lot of personal details here, I save those for my private blog, but I wanted to be able to look back at what my pre-reqs and (hopefully) nursing classes were like for me. Second, I wanted my blog to be a source of information and inspiration for others considering going back to school. Whether they were going back to school for nursing or underwater basket weaving. Being a wife and mother and care giver and taking the leap to go back to school too... it can be overwhelming! So I hoped that I could share my experience, that yes it is overwhelming and when you start you have no idea how you are going to make it through. But, you just need to take that first leap of faith and then keep putting one foot in front of the other. I think having the mindset that this IS what you are doing and not accomplishing your goal is not an option helps also.

With all that said, I decided now would be a good time to make a list of "What I Know".

It will be hard. Some things will be harder than you thought, some will be easier. It will be hard, but it will be worth every minute.

Ask for help. This was hard for me, I like to think I can do it all myself. the people at the financial aid office are your friend, they want to see you succeed. I promise. Go in, talk to them. Fill out the FAFSA, you may qualify for assistance you never thought you were eligible for. Then talk to your friends in the financial aid office some more. They may know of special grants offered by your college, and they surely know how to get in contact with the scholarship office.

Apply for scholarships. There are so many out there, find the ones you qualify for and apply! I never thought I would get the scholarships I have received. I was sure there was better, more qualified students out there. And, maybe there is, but they didn't apply.

Find the tutoring center. They don't let just anyone be a tutor. Allow them to help you do better in your classes.

Be nice to your instructors, but don't kiss up. You never know when you will need a letter or recommendation. And don't be afraid to ask them for some help too. Most instructors will bend over backwards to help you in their class... if you ask!

Please leave your cell phone alone while in class. I am amazed every quarter at the number of students who text all through lecture, then complain that the material is too hard and they just don't understand. It bothers those that are around you, trying to learn. No really, even if your phone is on silent. We still hear the keys and it is distracting when you are constantly picking up the phone, and putting it away again. We survived for many years not being in constant contact with our friends and family, you too will survive this hour. Disclaimer: By all means, if you have something unusual going on and you need to have your phone available, do so. But really this should be a once a quarter, if that, thing. I have 3 kids and a profoundly disabled grandmother that I am responsible for. I worry every time I have someone in the house taking care of them that I will get a call requiring me to rush home. It's happened once, it may happen again.

Take help where it is offered. You need to get the best grades possible. If someone offers to take the kids to the park for a couple hours so you can study... do it! On a similar note; kids, even small kids, can help with chores around the house. This is a good thing for them and for you!

I know there is more that I am forgetting, but I hesitate to offer too much advice for how to study. I have learned that I study very different than many other students.

Oh! One more. Always do your best. But, if it comes down to turning in a partially done assignment (or one that is done but not up to your standards) or not turning in the paper at all. Turn it in. Get the partial credit on the paper and move on. Hopefully you will have a high enough grade that you can coast once or twice.

I really believed sociology was going to be an easy, minimal effort class. It seems I was wrong.

There are 10 assignments due in the first week of class. And most are not quick assignments either. Ugh!

Tomorrow marks the first day of summer quarter. When I signed up for classes I was looking forward to a nice relaxing quarter. All of my heavy science classes are behind me, what would I have to worry about? Um, my sociology class seems to have an excessive workload. We are talking DVD's to watch weekly, along with essays and a couple other assignments... weekly!! Oh well, it will be over soon. And, as disappointed as I would be to knock down my GPA, most nursing programs figure your GPA only from your pre-req classes. So, I can lower my standards for this class. Yeah right.

I'm only a couple weeks away from having to turn in my nursing school application. Exciting! Scary! I am not looking forward to this. Logically I know that I have a good chance of getting in. And if I don't get in at my first choice, I have even better odds at my second choice. But still, it's hard putting yourself out there for others to accept... or reject. I've looked through the application packet, found myself overwhelmed and put it away again. So much is riding on these next few weeks!

Back to summer quarter. I will be enjoying the sun while studying sociology, medical terminology 2 and 2 typing classes. Hopefully this quarter will go smoothly, and I'll just be killing time until I get my acceptance letter!

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!