School

My nemesis.

I normally wouldn't share my failures with the world, but because it is so much on my mind I might as well.

I started out doing very well, I went to San Diego State for a year, then to San Jose State. I made it to my final semester. I worked full time that last year. I finished my thesis class. Grades came out in the early summer.

Capstone/thesis class, score: Incomplete.

WHAT?!?!? You've got to be shitting me!

(by the way, this is in 2006 I believe...ya still dealing with this 5 years later)

Anywho.... I'll try not to make this super long and complicated. The professor told me that me and several others in the class were missing some details in our capstone papers. The 15 page long paper didn't have enough information I guess...

So I went back and forth with the prof. all summer, he was on vacation, then I was on vacation, blah blah.

** Insert my fault here ** I just kinda forgot about it. I can't really say I totally forgot about it, but I put it on the back burner because I was already working full time and I wasn't in a hurry, by that point I had already gotten a new job at a pretty big name place.

Even so, I reached out to the Prof. several more times throughout the next couple of years trying to get my shit together. I knew I'd be stuck at this company if I didn't finish my degree. I get paid the same rate as most student interns TO THIS DAY.

At the advice of my therapist, about a year ago, I tackled some of the issues. My therapist suggested that part of my anxiety was that I had this school thing lingering over me. I definitely couldn't argue with that logic. So I contacted the teacher and asked him what I could possibly do to get this taken care of. He had me go back and finish my paper so I could turn it in for a new grade.

I went to the library one Saturday and sat there for many hours until it was finished. I turned in the paper, and he said he would pass me.

Several days later, he came back and let me know it was too late. He could not change the grade.

I was pretty crushed. I didn't pursue it further for many more months.

Starting last summer, C made major efforts to finish his degree. He had, for a while, been in the same boat. This past Fall we both took a couple classes to make sure we had enough units.

C was recently awarded his degree, YAY!!!

He inspired me to really put in the effort to try to get my stuff worked out. I reached out to my professor and chair person. I gave them good arguments for why its taken so long. I wrote the background, gave them personal reasons, as well as explained how the prof claimed he could change the grade and then came back later saying it wasn't possible.

Anyway, I've been told by my chair person at least twice this past few weeks that it is impossible, and that the class is not even offered any longer and I need to re-apply to the school, re-enroll in the class, and finish it.

Normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal, but tuition for the state school is about $2,000 which I cannot afford. Also this class requires 180 hours of community service. 180 hours! I work full time, if I just completed the hours on the weekends, worked 8 hour days, that is about 23 days. That is over 10 weekends of community service.

So to conclude, I'm eagerly awaiting a response to my last email and fingers crossed that they make this exception for me so I can finally move on with this part of my life. I can also start looking at other job opportunities, at this point I feel so stuck because that education background check done by most companies is always on my mind when applying to a new position. :(

Wish me luck!

Also, good freakin job if you got through all this! That turned out ridiculously long!