Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Oh Yeah!

I nailed the COMPASS test!

I did -quoting the academic advisor- AWESOME on every section. Even the math. The lowest score I got was for the trigonometry and I still did quite good. I aced the English reading and writing. The person that read my essay even told me that I should be a writer. I feel so good about myself. It is like having a shot of self esteem just injected to my veins. Sometimes it does take a piece of paper to make me realize my self worth.

At times I would sometimes feel like my intelligence rate had dropped significantly. It was not just about not getting an academic upgrade per se, but mostly about not really giving my brain a real challenge. I do think SUDOKU counts as a challenge, but there is always that 'play again' button when I suck. The test, on the other hand, really scared the hell out of me. This test was an equivalent of an SAT and to fail would be such a slap on the face. Fortunately I scored at college level. The thought of failing made my stomach churned, but when I was actually facing the computer screen with all those questions I was absolutely on a high. I loved it! Dear God, I am such a nerd.

So the next step is getting my transcript evaluated and hopefully some credits can be transferred. Then it is back to school for me. Yipee!


Thursday, July 25, 2013

I Got You!



On repeat!

The Starting Point

A long time ago I have decided that I did not want to pursue a Master's degree. Time passes and I still feel that way. However, I have changed my mind about going back to school. I am in the process of going back to school. Not a fancy grad school, but a community college. And I am pretty darn excited.

As I was filling out the application I realized that high school was 12 years ago and college was 8. It has been a long time since I left the academic world. Strangely, I feel like I have never really stopped learning. As cliche as it may sounds, I have learned a lot from people around me, even strangers. I learned things that school never taught me from the work I did -and still doing- as a writer, a travel journalist, a yoga instructor. This Associate degree that I am planning to attain from said community college will help me branch out to a whole new world. I am planning to get an Associate degree in Petroleum Technology.

I have to admit that I would not think of it myself. My husband told me about this opportunity to become a Petroleum technologist. It took me almost 2 years to finally decide that I want to do it. At first I fought the idea. "It's not me," I said and I struggled with defining 'who am I?'. The most cliche question of all. I was struggling with the notion that if I was one thing, I could not be another. If I was a writer, I could not possibly work as a Petroleum technologist. That would be a betrayal to myself. It took me so many full moons to finally come to peace with myself. I do not need to define myself. I can be anything.

My husband and I went into a lot of heated discussion about this Petroleum Technology thing. His arguments were always logical and mine were always based on my feelings. And finally I realized, taking this degree would not kill me. If anything, it would only benefit me in the long run. Adding another skill can never hurt. It will only give me a better chance in getting a well-paid job here, besides still doing the things I love to do like writing, teaching yoga and traveling.

So now I am studying for the admission test. I am revisiting trigonometry and algebra. I know it is only a community college, but I still want to ace it. I am and will always be a nerd. I guess that's the thing I like about school. It is challenging and makes me want to do well. Really well.

I did not think I would be really excited about this, but I really am.