CPR

Gotta jumpstart this blog again. Sorry for the delay... I hope I haven't driven away my millions of faithful readers.

Anyway, I finished my History of the Old Testament class this summer with a fairly mediocre grade. Enough to pass etc, but I was a little too demotivated by the sun etc to really put my heart into it. It's hard not to feel that the rest of my studies now are just a prelude to "real" school, which won't start until January.

I tried to skate by without buying a textbook (so often in online classes I haven't ever used one), but it would have been very helpful in this case. I ended up getting one in time for the final exam, and that was enough to get me through...

I've begun the fall quarter at MHCC and my last two prerequisites:

- World Religions (Independent study) -- Chris Jackson
- Nutrition (Online) -- Jack Brook

World Religions required an orientation last week. There I found out that the entirety of my grade will be based on three progressive exams and one comprehensive plus some worksheets that I turn in each time that I go in for an exam. This is going to work out really well since MHCC is about 30-45 minutes from my house.
The other cool thing about that class is that everything is self-paced. If I wanted to cram for a few days and go take all my exams next week or something, I could be done with the class next week. I don't think I'll do exactly that, but it's nice to have that kind of freedom.
The instructor, Chris Jackson, heads the philosophy department @ MHCC, and seems like a really cool guy. I would love to take more classes from him...
I have no plans to buy a textbook for the World Religions class.

Taking Nutrition online seems to be working okay too, though I will definitely need the textbook I just ordered on Amazon. There are a few more requirements for this class than for World Religions, but nothing too difficult.
I sure do like the online class system at PCC better than this one at MHCC. The PCC version seems a lot more intuitive and better-organized. Maybe it's just me, though.

I confirmed yesterday that my first day of class @ UP will be January 12. Just a little more than 3 months. It's hard to believe it's coming so soon! It seems like such a short time since I took my first prerequisite, before I even knew for sure that I wanted to go into Nursing. I'm feeling pretty intimidated by the UP Nursing program at this point, so I kind of hope the next two years go by as quickly... :)

More background: personal

A little bit about me:

I'm 31 years old, and have lived most of my life in Oregon, primarily in the Portland area. I love Oregon, and am proud to be a Portlander. Though I've really liked many places I've visited, so far there's no other city I'd rather live in.

I lived most of my childhood on a 40-acre farm in Yamhill County, bucking cows, milking chickens, and slaughtering hay bales. Or something like that...

After attending a few parochial elementary schools for my first few years of education, I was homeschooled for 5th through 8th grades. This experience ranged from a loose structure to outright "unschooling," though I only learned that term a couple of days ago. If my vast, rabid readership is interested in hearing more about that experience, I'll be glad to share.
I attended a parochial boarding school for my freshman year of high school. After that didn't work out, I finished the year and the next two years at my local public high school. About the time I got settled in there, I gave the Christian boarding school idea another go.

I dropped out of high school near the end of my senior year when it became apparent that I wasn't going to pass my classes. I got my GED (I'm pretty sure they told me I got an "Honors GED," whatever that means), and quickly set about to make my mark on the world by becoming homeless.

After a couple of years of that and several years of other twists and turns in my life I decided I wanted to go to college. Also, I had never lived outside the Pacific Northwest, so I randomly decided to attend a school down in Tennessee. Boy was THAT an eye-opening experience... now I'm more glad than ever that I live in Oregon!

I only went there for one semester, and didn't really focus too much on my studies. I passed all my classes, but my main focus was my new romance with Tiffany, a Senior nursing student from WA, who also just happened to be studying in TN. After she graduated, we both moved back here to Portland.

A year later (about two years after we met), Tiff and I were married. :D

This was also the point at which I set the goal of becoming a nurse, and began taking classes at PCC. Strangely enough, having a specific goal and someone to help support has made quite a difference in my scholastic motivation, and at PCC I've accumulated a 3.94 GPA. This has been very strange for me, since prior to now I was used to failing my classes pretty consistently. It's a nice change.

So that's where I am now. I have a really wide range of interests (about which you'll hear more in the future) and like new experiences, many of which I'll review for you so you don't have to bother with experiencing them for yourself. ;)

That's all for now.

Some background info

In a few months I will enter the B.S.N. program at University of Portland, where I'll spend five semesters and graduate at the end of the summer in 2010. This comes after about three years of half-time study of prerequisite and "general" subjects, mostly at Portland Community College.

Including the one I'm taking this summer, I only have three more classes to go until I'm done with my prereqs:

Summer:

• History of the Old Testament

Fall:

• World Religions


• Nutrition

Though I mentioned attending PCC, I'm taking these last three prereqs from Mt. Hood Community College. PCC doesn't offer the religion credits UP requires.