6 Consecutive Years in the Making...

In 39 days (not that I am counting, or anything...) I will be finishing my Bachelor's Degree...can you believe it, only 39 days of school left of my undergraduate college career!

After high school, I took a year off to "find myself". Really I took a year off to do nothing. I bummed around my home town, hung out in diners to all hours of the night (literally, not coming home until my mom was getting up for work!), partying with my friends and working part time.

The next year I enrolled at Shippensburg University in the tiny PA town of Shippensburg. It was terrible, I hated every second I was there. The University itself was fine, however, I commuted there from where I was living at the time with my parents. For anyone who has ever commuted to a college, you know it sucks for making friends, unless it is a community college where everyone commutes. After a semester I dropped out with terrible grades and a hatred of college in general. After that I took another half a year off, only to then the next year enroll at the local community college, HACC, Harrisburg Area Community College. This is the place where I spent the next several years of my life, sporadically.

The first semester I attended full time, receiving marginally high grades, but after not really finding my place I eventually dropped out and started working full time. I continued working full time and not really thinking much about going back to school for a couple more years. Until one day it occurred to me, that I would never really be anything more than I was...

I looked back over my life for the past 10 years of work, and it was sad...sad, sad, sad...I was going absolutely nowhere. So, this time I was determined to put my mind to it and to stick with school. I was 25 at the time I re-enrolled at HACC. At first I only could go part-time to school...due to financial constraints, I couldn't afford to not work full time.

Of course, my time at HACC was limited, it is after all, only a community college. Thanks to some help, I found ESC, Empire State College (through the State University of New York) where I could take courses online. Doing school work this way, where I wasn't required to physically be anywhere to take classes, I was able to go full time!

So, here I am 39 days away from completing my degree...right, also I am the first person on my father's side of my family to get a college degree, so needless to say, they are all very proud!
Weird, to even think about how long it has been, and how weird it will be to finally be done...