WOOT! I did it! I officially graduated from my local community college!!! It really was a bittersweet moment for me, because I wasnt completely fond of the school and it took a lot of faith and God to get me through yet it was a huge part of the last two years of my life. Anyway I graduated with an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts (a fancy way of saying general education ) with highest honors and as a member of Phi Theta Kappa. I was sooo excited!!!

Next for me is more school….I will be transfer to Liberty University in Fall 2011, and until then I will be taking online course through Liberty Online. I can’t wait to go to Liberty and be around so many awesome Christian people!

This is me at the induction ceremony for Phi Theta Kappa

My graduation gown with my Phi Theta Kappa stole

So the last blog that I created was…well…about 7 months ago…wow! That is definetly not what I had planned especially with the fact that I had hoped to keep updating my blog daily, but as you see that hasn’t really happened. So what has happened in my life in the last 7 months….well let’s see…

Over the summer I had my best friend, Sarah, visit us for a month which was awesome! Sarah’s older sister, Amanda (also a best friend), got married to her long time boyfriend…about time too . It was sooo crazy seeing one of my friends get married! I really realized how old I’m getting. And yes I got a little teary-eyed during the ceremony.

Here is a pic of the wedding party…doesn’t the bride and groom look adorable!

After the summer I went back to school. It was my third semester at the local community college and almost my last semester. I think this one was one of the harder semesters just because I was trying to adjust to getting up earlier and having a job while going to school. It was a big change but defintely a good change. I still need to work on my time management skills, but having to juggle school and work has given me more of a “hey this is the real world” thinking. With only one more semester left till I get my Associate’s Degree Im a little nervous about moving out and to a university (which I still don’t know where I’m going to go). I have applied to two different universities but I’m still not sure which one I’m going to yet. It is harder than I thought to not only pick a school but decide on what you want to do.

So that’s that I guess for now. I hope that you have all had a great year! Happy New Year everyone!! <3

This last semester I had to read quite a lot of literature whether that was an actual book, a play, or poem. So I thought I would share some of the pieces of literature that I read and give my opinion on them.

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

This is acutally a play tha I read during my English 102 course and probably my favorite. It is set in the Depression period about a mother (Amanda) and her two adult childern, Laura and Tom. Tom is both a character in the play and the narrator. The play is Tom remembering a past event, which is the main plot of the play. Amanda wants Laura to be married and hopes that Tom can help her find a husband. Tom is not happy at the warehouse that he works or at his home and wishes to leave, this idea makes him and Amanda clash a lot. Toward the end of the play a gentleman caller comes over (a friend of Tom) and Laura realizes that it is the same man that she had a crush on in high school. Both Amanda and Laura hope that something can come out of this meeting, but they find out a little too late that the gentleman caller is already engaged. Because Tom had invited the gentleman caller and didn’t tell anyone he was engaged Amanda blames Tom for embarassing them. This last fight between Tom and Amanda drives him to leave and join the merchant sailors nver seeing his family again, although he never does forget his sister, Laura.

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

This book is extremely interesting because when it was originally published people believed that Dante had literally traveled through hell because of the great detailed given in the book. The Inferno, which is actually part of the complete work called The Divine Comedy, is about Dante’s (the character)journey through hell with his guide, Virgil. He travels through hell in hope to reach purgatory and eventually heaven, and the only way to get to heaven is through hell. When I read this one it was quite werid and scary, but defenitely a piece of literature worth reading. In fact there are many authors who have used The Inferno as an inspiration for their own work.

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar… by Thomas Cathart & Daniel Klein

I used this book for my Critical Thinking class and it was very unhelpful. It didn’t explain philosophical terms very well and had more jokes in it than actual philosophical ideas. It is supposed to help you understand philosophy through jokes, but it doesn’t! And one thing to be aware in this book is that some of the jokes can be sexually crude or have foul language. Some of the joke were funny, but the book is not worth it. Though one of my favorite jokes had to do with inductive logic and it was:

Holmes and Watson are on a camping tri. In the middle of the night Homes wakes up and give Watson a nudge.
“Watson,” he says,”look up in the sky and tell me what you can see.”
“I see millions of stars, Homes,” says Watson.
“And what can you conclude from that Watson?”
Watson thinks for a moment. “Well,” he says, “astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astronomically, I observe that Saturn in is Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I see that God is all-powerful, and we are small and insignificant. Uh, what does it tell you Holmes?”
“Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!”

These three were just some of the ones I thought I would give my opinion on. There were a lot more that you can check out.

English 102

• The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen (this one is really interesting too)
• Death Knocks by Woody Allen (this one is actually really funny!)
• Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (I would not recommend this book, it was about soldiers and what they carried during the war, but it had quite a lot of foul language)
• The Experience by Jill Tweedie
• Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 55 by William Shakespeare
• When Death Comes by Mary Oliver
• One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
• Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas
• Cinderella and The Farmer’s Wife by Anne Sexton
• Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
• The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy
• Five Ways to Kill a Man by Edwin Brock

Okay I have only been in school for three days and I just had my first snow day of the semester. Part of me was hoping for school to be canceled just because I didn’t feel like going to school. So when I found out that my classes were canceled I was kinda of happy, mostly because that meant I could sleep in and I didn’t have to go out into the cold! But as I was enjoying my day off I realized that I had to go out and shovel the snow. Now normally shoveling is not too bad because we have a snowblower, but around 1 or 2 pm today the snow turned to freezing rain, so no snowblower. On top of having to do it by hand, it was still raining outside. Yuck! And when there is a snow and freezing rain mixture, it is really heavy to lift with a shovel. So after I was done shoveling I wished that it hadn’t snowed and that I did have school. Last time I wish for a snow day….although I may if I have a test cause then I get more time to study!!!

Here are some photos of our driveway and front yard around 10 am

So I know this is kinda late since the first day of school was on the 21st on January. But I have been busy with just so much different stuff (mostly playing Amish Yatzee with friends! ). So I decided better late than never, right? So this semester I am taking five courses instead of just four, which isn’t too bad so far cause one of my classes is really easy.

My classes this semester:

• English 102
• World History: Beginnings to 1450
• Math 123: Precalculus
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Introduction to Liberal Arts

So for the first class, English 102, is different than English 101 (last semesters english course) because this one deals more with literature and only two essays. English 101 had four essays and a research paper and no literature readings. I personally would rather write papers than have to interpret poems and other works of literature. So this class isn’t too bad but I never have really been a fan on english.

World History is the one that I was most excited about! Some of you may know that I am hoping to be an Archaeologist so history is extremely interesting to me. The one thing that I am not to fond of is because it talks about the world’s beginnings it has the evolution theories and the world being millions to billions of years old. Yeah right! But this is not a Christian campus and not a Christian textbook. Anyway I am looking forward to moving on past the “beginnings” and talking about early civilizations and how they went about life.

Math is going great so far! My professor for math is hilarious! He told us that we would get “extra credit” for calling him Rambo! Aparently loves those movies and references them throughout the class. He is always making jokes so it makes math fun and fun to be in the class!

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving is probably the course that I really wish I didn’t have to do. So far it is not bad, I mean, in class we read then answer questions. But there is just something, I don’t know what, that I am not looking forward too. Maybe the homework, project, tests, or all of the above? The thing that is interesting is this class is kinda backwards in the sense that we do “note taking/class work” for homework and “answer questions/homework” in the class time. For homewrok we read and while we read, we are supposed to keep a critical thinking journal. Basically take note on what we have read. I usually take notes in class not while reading my homework assignment.

Intro to Liberal Arts is going to be my eaisest coure this semester because we are going to discuss the different aspects of a Liberal Arts degree. Throughout the course we will be reading a couple of different books but nothing too major. The professor for this class is also really funny and makes it enjoyable to be in the class with him.

So, yeah, that is about it for this semester. I have no doubt that I will be posting more about school throughout the semester, but for now that is all.

So this morning when I woke, which was really around 11ish, I realized that my grades should be in.  I was nervous going to check them excepting to see a “D” or at best a “C” for my Psych class.  But instead when I logged in and viewed my grades they showed that I got three “A’s” and and “A-”!!!! I nearly screamed (which would have been bad because some members of my family were still sleeping)!  After I had taken my Psych final I had just about given up any hope that I would pass that class let alone get an “A”!  So I am happy and glad that my first semester of college is over!

Hallelujah finals are over!!  So December 10 was my first final (Sociology) and that day was very wet and rainy.  Then I was supposed to have my next and last three finals on Friday the 12th, but on Thursday night it was freezing rain and the college was closed so my finals were rescheduled to the next Friday. So at first I thought, “That is fine more study time,” but then my finals got canceled again because of a snow storm! So they were rescheduled again for Tuesday the 23.  So on Tuesday I finally got all my finals done and over with! Yeah!

But now I have to wait to see what my final grades will be for the semester. EEP!  I am really worried about failing Psychology because I really don’t think I learned much and I struggled remembering certain things on my Psych final.  I am not worried about my other courses as much but we will see when my grades come in on the 26th of December.

So Monday was my last day of classes for this semester.  Wow!  I can’t believe that the semester is just about done!  It feels so weird, especially since I’ve been homeschooled (I guess it is the same for those in school too), not having a full year of school.  I won’t be starting the Spring semester till around January 20 and my last final is on Friday.  That is about a month of vacation, time I didn’t have in high school.  But anyway this semester was pretty good, except for my stupid Psychology class.  I really enjoyed Sociology and Math, English was good too but I am not a fan of English and all the writing.  I would rather write when I feel inspired or something like that, not forced for some assignment.  So with my first semester of college out of the way it is now onto finals (eep!!!).  I am really worried about my Psych final because I really don’t know if I learned that much from the class.  Most of the class was spent on the teacher’s life and personal experiences, nothing having to do with Psychology.  So the next couple of days will be spent studying like crazy!!!

So it has been forever since I posted on my blog, but I have busy or just not in the mood to blog.  Life has been kinda frustrating lately with school.  I am taking a class with some kind of psycho teacher who can not stop taking about sex or any related topic.   Most of what he says goes against what I have been taught and what I believe, so it is really frustrating listening to the crap that this “Doctor” teaches, by the way this is a Psychology 101 course.  I don’t think I have actually learned much on the subject of Psychology but rather I am taking a course in “sex and the male body.”  Things that my parents tried to shield me from are now being thrown in my face in one short semester.  And what is sad about all of this is that most of the students in this class encourage him to talk about such subjects and laugh at his very crude, suggestive jokes.  I can’t not wait for this class to be over and done with!

So this week I signed up for classes at the community college where I will be a full-time student. This is like a huge step in my life! I still can’t believe that I am actually a college student this year! It feels like just yesterday I was starting high school and now I am in college.

So anyway for my first semester I will have four classes:

• Psychology 101
• Sociology 101
• An English class
• A Math class

But I will be going back soon to retake the English and Math Placement test to see if I can get into a higher level of both. It will be easier that way so that I don’t have to take as many English and Math courses. But either way I am excited about starting college this year and I only hope that I will do well.