Falling Back

I feel guilty and rightly so. This blog was supposed to keep me on track in my new college life and journey to financial stability, but... more than a year? Where has my time gone? I could say life got busy, but then I'd be lying to myself. My rose colored perspectives on college life weren't all wrong, but they weren't all right either.

I owe this blog a bit more dedication. I also haven't done much with my finances. I'm letting it fall into the background like I said I wouldn't. I owe an update and some rethinking of my situation.

So since my last post in April, I did go to move into my dorm. I had no idea if I'd have a room or not, because they didn't explain how the system worked for me. I was thinking I'd have to find off-campus housing, but they put me in one of the low cost halls in a room by myself. It had perks... good air conditioning, a must have for a very hot summer, but mostly it was a cell. I spent my first month of classes learning the campus and being alone. It was oddly disconnecting. Contrary to popular belief, I didn't have to live on ramen. My meal plan was quite lovely that first semester. It wasn't very eventful, but when my excess funds came in, I was able to get a cheap desktop for myself. I ended up using the rest of it to pay my brother back what I owed him.

I had a job working at the Mass Media department for work study. It wasn't bad, but I don't think work study is all that beneficial for me. Sure, you don't have to pay back the money, but you also don't get it when you need it. I decided to switch to just getting the full loan and get a job on campus.

I did well my first semester. I had my first English class and a Computer Science course. I was taking Trigonometry, because they said I didn't need College Algebra since I apparently had it in high school. I had to drop it. I couldn't keep up. I ended with a 3.5 GPA and that was alright for me.

Fall semester was a little more exciting, though also... a big problem. I was taking five classes, forced to drop one because the work was overwhelming. That made two withdrawn classes already! I hate that. After promising myself I wouldn't flake out... sigh. I did well for a majority. Anthropology and Sociology intro classes I passed with an A and a B. Trigonometry I took during the regular semester and made a C, which considering it's been 6 years since I took a math course, for me that's fantastic. Taking Japanese that semester was a mistake. The first few weeks were fine, but then slowly but surely, it was downhill from there. I ended up failing Japanese, and that brought my GPA down to a 2.6. Still doing well, but what a depressing month that was.

This was also the semester that I moved to a larger, nicer, though more distant dorm. I'm thinking being on main campus is much better for my grades, but it's nicer than my cell. The roommates were a gamer chick, a legally blind lesbian girl and a Scottish exchange student. We shared a kitchen and living room, and each side had two bedrooms with a shared bathroom. I shared the side with gamer chick. She was pretty nice, but after one semester, decided to transfer. It's a shame really. I miss the girl. I can honestly say she was my best roommate. Maybe that was entirely because I hardly saw her ever. Ha!

That was the first semester I started working for the college newspaper. I hate it. I put the paper content on the website every week. It makes me $160 a month, which gets entirely sucked into food, since I reduced my meal plan to a smaller one because the prices on campus are extortionate. $15 for a frozen pizza you could get for $4 at the store. The blind roommate and me started sharing food, so we split the groceries equally. We adopted a blind guy on campus and he helped pay for food in exchange for cooking his and doing his laundry. I had a second job from doing transcribing work for him, which helped me out a lot on expenses. I owe that boy so much... a total lifesaver.

By the end of that semester, I was feeling pretty down because of my grades. I didn't go home for the holidays over winter break, choosing to save the money my parents would have spent coming to get me and just hanging around for spring semester to roll around. It was deserted there. Sitting in my room for more than two weeks after classes had ended, playing around online and eating whatever we had leftover from the last shopping trip, never setting foot outside. If any of this adventure of being my own person wasn't the dream I'd imagined, it was that two weeks. I felt so alone then. You learn to appreciate people when none of them are around.

I was coping by taking up role playing on a chat forum, and I still do it now. It doesn't cost anything, but like that game I used to play, it does sell objects for real money. You don't need them and can get funds without paying for them, so I've done pretty well not spending any money on it. I hope I'm not just lapsing into my old mistakes again...

Part two of my update will is coming up soon. I really want to pick up this blog again, just so I can focus myself on what my goals were supposed to be when I started it. I've been letting it fall back for a year already. I'm losing sight of the goals I set for myself. Let's put me back on track, shall we?

Ramen, Rain and Registration

I've been gone a long time again, but this time, it wasn't 100% my fault.

We've been without Internet for 2 weeks thanks to Comcast. I have a different service, but they've been laying down cable and they keep hitting our lines and disconnecting half the neighborhood from phone service. When they did their temporary repairs, the line disconnected every five minutes.

Comcast better be paying my phone bill this month. My own service wouldn't come to repair it until Comcast was out of the way, but right after it rained every day for a week.

The "Powers That Be" don't love me this month.

It's almost registration time, and I'm totally jazzed! I'm supposed to be getting something in the mail for it, but so far, all I received was information on my Fall semester financial aid. I've been told Maymester is out for me. They don't recommend it for freshmen because it's basically 4 months compacted into 3 weeks. I don't see what the big deal is, I only planned to take one class.

Still, I have completely planned out my first semesters up until next Summer.

So I'm still broke and unemployed. Getting a job here is impossible right now, especially for someone like me, who is degree-less and due to be moving in less than two months. I don't tell them I'm moving, but its doesn't make my chances better. I'd have to move to find a job only to move again in 2 months.

I need to win the lottery.

All in all, I'm still okay for the moment. I owe my family a lot, but I'm very confident I'm making the right move, so I'll see how things turn out.

This Slacker Begs Forgiveness

I haven't posted in two weeks, and I can only blame myself. I just haven't had anything to write about. I'm a little grumpy, because I'm still not working yet. The interviewer I was supposed to talk to by phone never called and I'm being told that it's normal for this particular company to take months to hire you, but in about another month I won't even be within easy traveling distance, so they might as well forget it.

I'm just happy everything is set for college, except registration. I can hardly wait!

It's like Christmas for me, because I've always wanted to go to college. I'll wake up at 2am, skip and dance over to the computer and open up the class catalog to begin merrily picking out my subjects. I suppose after a while, the joy of it will wear off, but I can't help but be happy.

Another cause of my slacking is that I'm trying to start another blog for my comic series. I'd prefer to keep my comics separate from my blog account, because I'd rather never have my friends know my financial difficulties (they would start trying to help, and I'd rather they not) or to have anyone who reads my comic to connect it to all these personal details.

Perhaps the best way to do that would be to use a completely different blog service for the comics. I was thinking of Live Journal, but if anyone knows a blog site that has a good system for sharing comics, I'd love to hear about it.

Rationalize

I was mapping out my summer schedule to make sure I could take all the classes I wanted. It looks like I may only be able to fit in 4 of my core subjects unless I'm allowed to take at least one of them during Maymester.

One of my classes is College Algebra. It's been nearly 6 years since I had an Algebra class, so to see how much I remember, I printed up the sample exam for the first section from the math department page.

On the bright side... I know what numbers look like.

The downside is I had no idea how to solve the first one and the questions seemed to increase in difficulty as you went along. I lost my scientific calculator some time ago, so it looks like I'm going to have to dig that baby out for college. I managed to get by with my computer calculator and with the help of a very handy site:

The West Texas A&M University Virtual Math Lab

This one helped the most, because they have videos that show you the method to solve the problem. I managed to fight my way through the worksheet and then checked my answers. I didn't get them all right, but I was able to figure out how they came to their answer, and where I went wrong. I just hope that I'll be okay when the real thing comes up.

All Work and No Play

I haven't posted for a few days, which was mostly because I spent the weekend at my sister's house. She lives about two hours away, which isn't so far I couldn't visit, but far enough away that it's a pain to travel.

My main reason for going down there was to attend a job interview at a call center on Friday, and because we hardly see each other, I just stayed a few days. I think I aced the interview, but this call center is notorious for keeping people on the back burner for months before they confirm employment.

On Saturday, I explored the area, because if I get this job, I'll have to live with my sister and her husband until the semester starts. They live right down the road from a Books-A-Million, which is enough to make me happy.

I was browsing around the comics and manga and I noticed they weren't even close to being organized. Being the anal obsessive type, I started alphabetizing the whole section. I got to the M's before any of the store employees even noticed. They were really thrilled. One even hugged me. Apparently, this section is like kryptonite to employees. They said they were hiring and I should apply, so it could be a backup if the call center doesn't pan out. I won't hold my breath though.

On another note, my financial aid papers came in over the weekend and I'm fully covered for the next two semesters! YAY! The only thing that could make this moment better is being able to afford a new computer.

Who knows, maybe another windfall is on it's way.

Hardcore Education

So, being the complete freak that I am, I have planned my entire college career down to the last class. I hardly think I'll deviate from Plan A, but just in case, I also have B and C. Is this weird? Does anyone else do this?

Basically, I went through the college course catalog (ha, say that 3 times fast) and following their recommended undergraduate format, I chose all the classes for my dual degrees. A lot of the math and science classes for my B.S. in Computer Science filled in the requirements for my B.A. in Anthropology.

Plan A - Dual Degree plan allowing for the classes that both need, but focusing on the degree classes that are the most difficult to fill that need. In plain English, the math classes for CS are harder, but they would fill the requirement for both.

Plan B - If doing both is too much, drop the Anthropology and focus on Computer Science.

Plan C - If I decide I hate Computer Science, drop it for Anthropology.

I can complete the core curriculum before I'll have to decide on a plan. In fact, that will probably be the deciding factor. I already love computers, and I love Anthropology, but Computer Science is very heavy on Math and I've never been a great math student. My friend said I may never need the advanced Calculus required for the degree in my future career. She hasn't yet. I'd never let my former failures decide my future, so even if that future is chocked full of numbers, I'm still going to try.

I have yet to find a computer without a calculator.