NURSING SCHOOL, PART 4

I slept in until 7:00 this morning. Usually, I'm up at 5:00 a.m. ...or earlier. Today, the sun stood well above the eastern horizon when I rolled out of bed, bright daylight on white snow.

I spent the entire day in my pajamas. I don't know if I have ever spent an entire day in my pajamas before in my life. (Maybe one or two days when I was sick?) Usually, I am up and dressed before dawn.

I spent almost the entire day on the sofa. Read Chapter 1 out of my Anatomy & Physiology textbook, dozed, up long enough to cook and eat lunch and start a load of laundry, back on the sofa to review concepts and vocabulary. Now, tapping away on the computer. Need to cook dinner and make progress in A&P Chapter 2 before I call it a day. Do NOT need to change before I head to bed. Win!

What I have NOT done today:

Cleaned the bathroom.

Mopped the floors.

Taken out the trash.

Put away the laundry. (I'll get around to it!)

Guess I'm making the adjustment to college-student life pretty well.

I shared earlier this week on Facebook, but want to share again here at the blog, a few of the challenges I've encountered as a non-traditional student:

1. Keeping a straight face when professors make comments like, "You probably covered this in high school, but I want to do a quick review." Two of my professors have apologized to their classes for a beginning-of-semester chemistry review. Apologized! Are you serious?! "I'm sorry if you find this boring or repetitive, but..." The last time I studied chemistry was 35 years ago. Sister, I NEED this review. DO NOT APOLOGIZE!

2. Climbing four flights of stairs and NOT wheezing like a geezer at the top. I begin each math class hoping that my instructor will not call on me for at least the first 10 minutes of class. I need time to catch my breath. Obviously, I also need to make hiking to the fourth floor of Humanities multiple times three days a week part of my routine fitness regimen.  Man, by the end of the semester, I'd be a BEAST!

3. Going three hours without a bathroom break. Folks, at 54 years of age, after seven pregnancies and after giving birth to seven babies, this is SERIOUS. On Facebook, folks assured me that, in college, it is okay to leave the classroom if need to use the restroom. NOT. For two reasons: first off, I cannot overstate how badly I need this chemistry review; second, despite the fact that all of my professors are younger than I am (one is literally young enough to be my child), I am confident that any one of the three would nail me to the wall if I stood up to leave the room during lecture.

4. Remembering where you parked the car when you come out of class. Two days a week, I ride to campus with my daughter. I LOVE carpooling. I love the conversation, the music jam sessions, the stops for coffee...and I especially love that it's her job to remember where the car is parked. She's really good at that.

Me, not so much. Fridays, I drive myself to campus. I came out of my last class this past Friday and had a mini panic attack when I realized I had absolutely NO IDEA where I had parked the van. Across from Administration? Behind the library? Next to the University Center? Almost a thousand commuter parking spaces on the UTM campus, and I had no idea which one I had parked in that morning.

Thankfully, by the time I finished studying the afternoon away in the library, most of the other students had left campus. When I stood and began putting my books away, I glanced out the second-floor library windows and spotted my lonely van waiting far away at the end of the lot beside the UC. (Thank you, Jesus!)

Lesson learned, fellow non-traditionals:

STUDY.

Studying late each afternoon helps you find your vehicle when you forget where you parked that morning.

Plus, studying just might make it easier to dredge up some of that chemistry you learned 35 years ago.