Hmmm, this is old hat!

Well, not entirely, but this is the first semester that I haven’t felt anxiety, wondering what will come next and whether I will be able to manage it all. Prior semesters always had a new element… new experience, new subject matter, new college, new schedule... Well, some of that is still present here at the beginning of my senior year. For one thing, my classes this semester all begin at 2:00 pm or later! After six semesters of morning classes, I took the opportunity to give this a try. Gives me what seems like tons of time for homework in the mornings when my brain is fresh. Still working out a timetable but expect to get into that familiar rhythm soon. Classes are new, of course, and professors, but there is a calmer feeling this time. I’ve been through the worst (Financial Accounting 1 & 2!), and have nearly 80% of my courses behind me. It’s feeling very comfortable now. I will make it! I will graduate on time. And I will enjoy these last two semesters – for the most part! The unknown parts aren’t so scary anymore. I have that “been there, done that” feeling. It feels great.

One of my courses this semester, “Integrating Business Fundamentals with Ethics and Law,” has a twist that I wish every course offered. Dr. Cummins teaches in a regular classroom, but records it live on WebEx. So I can “attend” at home by joining the class on computer! She can see who is “present” and we can use the chat feature to ask questions. She answers as though we are sitting right there in the classroom. The only time we must attend in person is for exams, however I do want to experience it at least once from the classroom side. She authored the textbook, and is funny, engaging, and perfect for this method of teaching. Class sessions are stored for viewing and re-viewing whenever we wish. This would have been very useful for some of those really difficult courses.

My other class is Accounting Information Systems in which I expect to learn all the things I was doing wrong when I tried to develop Access databases for my old job! I knew there were supposed to be complex relationships between all the tables, but I just didn’t understand how to make them work. Day two of class and I’m already elbow deep in relational databases. Right up my alley!

At the end of last semester my Business Communications professor asked if I would consider being a teaching assistant (preceptor) for the same class this semester. I agreed, so that rounds out my schedule. I’ll attend most classes and assist students with all the same assignments I completed last Spring. I don’t really need the credit hours, but it seemed like an interesting experience and a way to get to know Dr. Liers a bit better. He’s a professional writer and you just never know when you'll need that kind of assistance down the road.

So my next 15 weeks are set! By Christmas, I'll be a senior-and-a-half, and have just two upper division classes remaining before graduation in May. Yay!