Taking the long road

So today was my first day back at school and I'm actually pretty excited about it! I think I've taken the longest road possible to get my degree, but this time I'm ready, dedicated, and I'm gonna do it! After I graduated high school, I went to the UofU for a couple years, but to be completely honest, I was young & dumb and didn't really take it too seriously. I stopped school to serve my mission and when I came back, I enrolled again back up @ the U. Well I met Ova, we started dating, he was way more worthy of my time than school was so I ended up dropping all my classes to spend all my time with him...which was way worth it because we got married and started our little family! After Makai was born, I decided I should go back and finish. I decided to go to Everest College, because someone did a good job selling the "go to school at night and online and still have your life" I thought it would be perfect for me because I had a baby, and a full-time job so that would work good with my schedule. Well, I did end up graduating with my Associates degree in Accounting, but sadly it turned out to be a really expensive waste of time. Don't get me wrong, the education was good and it was a challenge, but what they didn't tell me was that its not a regionally accredited school so you can't transfer your credits to another school to go on for your Bachelors or Masters, and employers choose people with a degree from a regionally accredited school over those with a degree from a nationally accredited school, so finding a job would be difficult. I didn't realize that until now when I'm at a place in my life where I can finish school. To be honest, I got really discouraged and didn't know if I even wanted to finish anymore...but my husband is always supportive of me and my dreams and he helped push me to want to finish. I weighed my options and decided the best thing for me would be to transfer all my credits I earned when I went to the U right after high school to SLCC and start over again since none of my credits from Everest would transfer. When all is said and done, it actually won't be that bad. I had enough of my generals done from before that I just have to focus on the classes that are required for me to transfer back up to the U to finish my Bachelors and think about getting my CPA. I should be able to finish all the pre-req's by next fall so I can apply to the Business program at the U, majoring in accounting. Like the title of my post, I've taken the long road, but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel! Something that will help give my family stability if we ever needed something to fall back on.

Well, today was the first day of my journey to return to school and it went really well! I'm taking 15 credits (5 classes) and I already have a 10 page paper due next Tuesday....they sure don't waste any time! :)

On that same note, my little brother-in-law Sau has decided to go back to school too! Sau got out of "school" (prison) about a year ago. He really is a good kid who just made some bad decisions when he was younger. I'm so happy and proud of him for his decision to turn his life around and strive for something better. The day he came over to our house to tell us he wanted to go to school, both Ova & I told him we supported his decision 100% and we would do anything to help him out. I spent the last few days running around with him trying to get everything situated for him to start this semester. It seemed like there was always something in the way, something that would try to discourage him & me from getting him registered. He lost his wallet a little while ago and it had all his important documents in it, like his ID, social security card, birth certificate...everything. This made it very difficult because he had no legal proof of his identity. You have to take a placement test before you can register for classes, but you have to have an ID to take the test. We tried to get a renewal of his state ID, but they have to have a birth certificate or a passport & a social security card or a w-2 from last year. Well he didn't have any of that. To get his social security card he needed a picture ID, even a school one would have worked, but he couldn't get a school ID without another ID. If was just one thing after another and I was trying really hard not to let him or myself get discouraged. We finally called his parole officer and asked if there was anything she could do. She printed a paper copy of his parollee ID and we went back to the school just praying it would work. Luckily it did! They let him take the placement test which let us register him which let him get his student ID, which now he can use to go get his social securiy card....and as soon as the copy of his birth certificate comes from Hawaii, we'll go get his state ID and he'll be good to go! I got his financial aid all set for him and everything seemed to be working out.... but of course nothing can go too smoothly, cause on the day he was supposed to start his classes, he was rushed to the hospital because of stomach pains, and he had to have surgery to get his appendix removed. Luckily we were able to contact his professors to let them know the situation so they don't drop him for not being there on the first day. Now he has all weekend to recover and he'll start Monday morning. Although its been stressful to start the process of going to school, I know it will be well worth it and I'm so happy and proud of Sau for having the motivation and will-power to take this step to change his life for the better! His Facebook status after all was said and done was "....its official y'all I'm starting school tomorrow, flippin off the system for doubting me...." I love it! You tell 'em Sau!

So there's the story, me and my little bro-in-law are going to SLCC!!! :)