It's the End of the World...

...Well, maybe not the world, just undergrad...
It has been almost two week, two week tomorrow to be exact, that I have been done with school. The time has gone by so quickly, I barely have realized that I am done. Of course all those extra hours I was so anxiously awaiting, have quickly been sucked up into nothing. I have no idea how I am wasting my newfound time, but I am, as I always do.

It still feels a bit like a vacation, or the few weeks off in between semesters. Given more time, I am sure it will really sink in that I am not going back. Working at a University helps me get over the longing for school days. The new books, the anticipation of new classes. All I have to do is walk down the hall outside my office and look at the faces of the anxious students...yeah I don't miss it all.

I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up...
There are days though, where I worry about wasting too much time. Where it feels like my life is on fast forward. Where I sit in my office and watch everything rush quickly by, and I am stuck sitting here in the same part of time and space.

I am jealous of the students I see all day, they have goals and a direction. They seem to know exactly where they are going, and they are so young. They have so much time a head of them.

Hopefully all of those people who were telling me that 30 is the new 20 a year and a half ago were right... ;-)

Time Stamp Fixed...

The time stamp on my last post says 5:51AM...by no means was I up posting at 5 in the morning! It was more like 8:51AM...so I don't know if I warped to the west coast this morning or something...or my blog did, but just for the record I was not up at that time nor was I posting at that time. Just had to clarify that for everyone out there!
My alarm was still being snoozed at 7:20AM this morning...

UPDATE:
The issue ended up being...some how my profile was changed to say I was living in Pacific Time. While there are times it would be nice to live in the Pacific, you know those times in the winter months when it is cold, grey and snowing for days here in upstate NY, the Pacific seems nice. I do however, enjoy four seasons, and I really love the snow. So anyway, the time stamp issue is updated, for now there will be no more posting at 5:51AM!! ;-)

One week left...

Next Friday at this time I will be finishing up my last paper, for my last day of college. I seriously can't believe it. I am stunned, shocked and of course really anxious.

Honestly, there were so many points in time where it seemed like this day (or week) would never come. I never thought I would be this close to finishing college. And to think I will be the first person on my Dad's side of the family with a college degree, pretty neat! ;-)

So now I am busy thinking of what I am going to do with all of my free time, besides the obvious, sleep! I am still really in shock that after next Friday I am done with college, it just doesn't seem real to me yet...

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...

Sold

My car sold almost two weeks ago...the whole process was an entire blur. The prospective buyer came to test drive the car, the next day he emailed me with an offer...after a bit of negotiations, the car was sold. It seriously took no time at all.

I didn't get as much as I was hoping to get for the car, but they were nice people and I get to see my car driving around town, happy with its new family...good karma.

I missed the car for about a minute as we walked away after the deal went down. I cried, and then had a margarita, all was good.

Selling my car...

I put my car up for sale on Sunday. It is something I have been wanting to do for some time, but just hadn't really gotten around to doing. I love my car, it is a great car, but we just don't need two cars right now. I keep reminding myself of all the money we will be saving with out my car...car payment, insurance, oil changes, gas...it all adds up to be quite a lot.

So far, since Sunday I have had two people who have expressed interest in the car. One of them even came by on Monday to test drive it. Another emailed today with interest. Hopefully it will sell quickly, so I don't have to think about it too much. Kind of like ripping off a band aid, do it quickly to lessen the pain (or at least it seems that way).

So, if you know anyone interested in a car...

Busy week

Last Friday I finished my final full semester in completing my Bachelors Degree. It has only taken my 11 years to get this far. I decided that since it did take me so long to get my degree, that I would continue on and get my Masters.

So, this week I registered to take the GRE. I scheduled it far enough out that I have plenty of time to study, September 26. Now of course comes the study part...which isn't not fun. I went out and bought some books to help me study. So far they are nothing but discouraging.

Who knew that I would be so horrible at antonyms, analogies and math (well, the math part I knew...). Four months and counting to beef up my knowledge of all things standardized! It should be fun.

Oh and I start my last semester in a little over a week. Should be a fun summer!

If anyone has any helpful suggestions on studying for a standardized test, I would love to hear your ideas! :-)