Ha! How many of you clicked over thinking I’m announcing T2? Sorry kids, it’s not time yet. :)

Outtakes from my bokeh attempts last week

My big secret?

I’m going back to BYU. Like physically going back to Provo and enrolling as a student again. I’m going to graduate!

A few months ago a conversation about our summer schedule for next year revealed some wiggle-room regarding when That Husband would be returning to work. The idea of using that time to finish my degree popped into my head, and I couldn’t shake it. Would it really work? After a little bit of time spent researching, and a few persuasive emails, I realized it’s not going to be as difficult as I previously thought.

To back up, for those who don’t know, I was married in late 2008 before I finished my English degree from BYU. Over time I forgot how many credits I had left, but I thought it was just over a semester’s worth, maybe 22 or 26, something like that. I signed up for some classes online before I got pregnant, but I didn’t follow through and they all expired before I made much progress. I realized I missed the classroom experiences, specifically when it came to English classes that are largely discussion based, and the difficulty of writing papers without time spent in an expansive library like the Harold B Lee Library at BYU.

When I logged on to check how many credits I had left, I realized there were only 15. 15! I double checked, triple checked, but it’s true, somehow I had whittled it down to less than a semester’s worth of work. 3 English major classes, 1 Advanced Writing class, and 1 Advanced Languages credit.

So now, I had three hurdles to get past.

The first, as I mentioned before, was that I really disliked the online education experience. Writing papers with my limited resources was extremely difficult, and I missed working through classic literature with my peers. What if, I physically went back to BYU for Summer semester 2012 and knocked out my 3 English major classes? That Husband will move up to Washington with T1, my mom will act as his primary caregiver, and I will spend 6 weeks down in Provo taking English 291 (Brit Lit 1), English 293 (American Lit), and English 495 (The Senior Course).

The Advanced Writing class? I can suffer through it online, but I’m going to switch to M Com 320 (Communication in Organizational Settings) instead.

The last class, the one that fulfills my Advanced Languages credit, was in large part the reason why I had all but given up on graduating. For English majors this normally must be completed by taking an advanced language course, and I chose to work toward learning Italian. Mamma mia! What a mistake. I love the language, and it’s fun to speak in Italy, but it’s basically useless. My real problem with this choice though, is that I needed to find a class that was the equivalent of Italian 202 to complete the requirement, and barring an investment of several thousand dollars, that just wasn’t going to happen. Spanish 202? Maybe, but Italian just isn’t as common.

Previously when I hit this point, I just gave up. This time though, I tried emailing a counselor at BYU, and after several exchanges back and forth, my petition to be excluded from the foreign language requirement was granted and I can now take Math 119 online in order to graduate.

Hip, hip, hooray! 5 classes to go and I’ll be walking next August.

I’m writing this post to not only let you know about this big goal I’m working toward, but because it means some changes for the blog. It’s been weeks since I’ve told our family that I’m doing this, and my in-laws are starting to wonder if I’m going to follow through. I realized that the thing holding me back from progressing was That Wife. I do have some Jenna Cole stuff to work on, but when I’m really being honest with myself most of my time lately has been spent on That Wife. The October Photo Challenge, TWLC/2, Europe photos, all sorts of things that have me saying “I just have to finish X, and then I’ll be ready to start on school”. But life keeps happening, and there are always new things to blog about, so I’ve got to make a big change.

I talked about being very drastic, cutting out That Wife entirely until I had met some goals, but I think That Husband realized that was not going to be a goal I actually met, so I tweaked things a bit and came up with a new plan. Until I finish my two online classes, I get two 15 minute increments of That Wife time per day.  This includes uploading photos, writing posts, responding to comments, time on the That Wife facebook page, and responding to emails that I label as That Wife related.  I love blogging, but I need it to take a backseat for a little bit while I work to get school out of the way.

Formspring and Pinterest will be treated as reward sites, using a system a friend of mine developed in college. 20 minutes working, 5 minutes playing, 20 minutes working, 5 minutes playing. Of course I can use my play time however I please, and sometimes that will go toward That Wife, but sometimes upkeep on my site can feel a little more like work than play. :)

I’m nervous, because Math 119 is going to be killer for me (I can barely add double digit numbers, I haven’t taken a math class since my algebra class over 10 years ago), but my time spent at BYU will be a little break from reality, allowing me to read and write in a way that just isn’t possible right now. A big thank you to those who have encouraged me to think about school in positive and genuine ways. Cristin, Erin, and Sophia in particular have been wonderful. Thanks friends.

 

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