Happy Holidays

I want to wish everyone a happy holiday and new year. I don't know about everyone else, but I am done with all of my holiday shopping and I am now broke beyond compare. I do this every year. I over shop and end up broke around this time of year. I love this time of year though. My family and I have a little tradition; on Christmas Eve, my brothers, their families, and I all meet up at our mom's place and have dinner. We also pull names among the few of us at Thanksgiving for Secret Santa. We set a spending limit and shop for the person whom we drew. On Christmas Eve, after we've all ate, we exchange Secret Santa gifts. This little tradition was started to cut down on the cost of holiday shopping because our family had grow so, that it had began to get extremely expensive to shop for the holiday. We still buy gifts for all of the kids, and we might get a few little stocking stuffer gifts for the adults, but this has changed how we spend. Even with this I still tend to get a little carried away with the kids and for the names that I get. Anyway, this does it for me. I've got a lot of work to do, so I'm gonna call it good for now.

What kind of affect is school having on my life?

I could say that school is great or that, as of now, my educational experiences have been positive and insightful; but the truth is that this is not for everyone. Sometimes I wonder is it really for me. School has, and probably always will, caused me an enormous amount of stress. It never fails! Once I think that everything is going smoothly something happens and everything turns into one big mess. If someone were to come up to me today and ask me about school: how I liked it or if I enjoyed it; my answer would be no. Maybe I'm just venting today, but I can't think of one thing that I've enjoyed about my time spent at Kaplan University. I've spent the last 6 weeks working towards something else that was supposed to help me pay for school, but I've had more fun in that 6 weeks than I will probably ever have attending this school. I understand that life is not all fun and games, but it's not all misery and sorrow either. In life, you should be able to find a little joy in what you do. I don't feel that the only satisfaction that I should get from getting my education should be simply receiving a degree; I feel that the knowledge that I am receiving should excite me and encourage me to continue to try and learn more. Maybe for a person like me, online classes isn't such a great idea. I might need that fact- to- face contact a little more than I anticipated. Over the holidays I plan to reevaluate my plans and determine if this is the rout that I want to continue to pursue.

Exactly what am I up to?

I am not used to writing blogs, keeping journals, or anything of that nature, so,for me this is a bit of a task. Last time I didn't say much about my online school or classes or anything much at all. I guess this time around I will speak a little on that. I am attending Kaplan University online to receive my bachelors degree in health science. I;m pretty much just starting out so I have a long way to go. I started this blog because it was a requirement for my College Comp II course. Yeah, so, that's enough into that right now. I am also taking a local class to learn to drive 18 wheelers and to get my commercial driver's license (CDL). I figured I would try it and see how it worked out. I LOVED IT! I'm the only girl in class with 11 guys and 2 male instructors. Needless to say, I had to play it cool and become "one of the guys." I officially passed all my tests today in the stormy Memphis, TN weather today, and I now have a shiny new license. The class is coming to an end; we have about 6 more class days left. I am going to truly miss it. I have really had so much fun taking the course. The guys were great! They were respectful, but still colorful, entertaining, and insightful all at the same time. I will miss their company the most. This driving class, along with the 3 classes I am taking at Kaplan, are the reason that I am always pressed for time. I feel like I live in the classroom now. I look forward to the holidays and spending some time with my family and friends and thinking about something other than shifting gears, health politics, pre- tripping trucks, or studying one of the systems in the body. My brain is warped. I need a mental vacation.

First Post

This is my first official post on my blog. This blog is a part of my class requirement for an online course that I am taking up. I think that this is pretty cool. I like the idea of taking advantage of the technology and resources we have and using them to broaden or education. I used to think of myself as a techno- savvy person, but when Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter came around I just couldn't get into them. For me this is that step to getting back into the world. Anyway, I hope everybody had a great holiday. I know I did. I got to chill out and not cook or do anything. Ok well it's kinda hard to type and follow my show at the same time. I'm at a bit of a lost for words anyway, so I'm gonna go now. Until next time. Be safe