Day 7

It was a bit of a struggle to get up for my 8 a.m. lab today but I survived nonetheless! And I also ended up acing my lab quiz, so it was definitely a productive morning. Was very excited to start on the bones of the skull/facial and neck muscles today because it confirmed that I learned a ton more in high school anatomy and college functional biology than I will need to get through A&P I and II. Makes the studying a little enjoyable and a lot less stressful!

Also talked more to my best friend on my 4 hour break in between classes today; she was loaded down with a ton of work. Her 25th birthday is Sunday! I had my mom send her a present I chose for her from home since it would be cheaper to ship and would get there faster. Of course it arrived at her apartment yesterday but she won't open it until the 12th. So standard.

I did get good news about my work study position on campus, which will be in the nursing department. I went in and talked to the secretary and she was so nice. It sounds like I'll be doing general clerical work, getting the mail, and some laundry as it comes out of the labs. I can also take in my homework to do on that job, which is excellent!

After human growth, I headed over to the dance department to rehearse the students again. We only have rehearsal on Monday and Wednesday next week, which is awesome! (Love Fridays off in any capacity!) Just continued to clarify choreography and gave notes; we have made huge strides in just a couple hours together. I'm really excited to see how it progresses by the time of the performance.

Since I also managed to get ahead by a couple days on all my homework and readings, looks like a great fall weekend to head toward the boat and a bit toward home. Am going to relax and enjoy a break from a work-filled week!

Day 6

I was a productive soul starting as soon as I got up today, finishing my reading from the night before I even made breakfast! I also had to make it a point to call my dad and wish him a happy birthday and had a nice chat with my best friend after she got out of her morning classes.

Took my first of two anatomy quizzes over these two days (lecture today, lab tomorrow) and aced the first one. Everyone was freaking out before this 10-question, multiple choice quiz and I had to tune out the entire class. It reminded me of situations I've been in prior to going onstage and having other dancers either go through all of the choreography or start asking me questions. It drives me crazy! I need to have peace of mind and confidence in my abilities before any kind of performance; insecurities make me want to start smacking people upside the head. Just calm down.

In my second class we had a guest speaker. Our professor had talked about the possibility of having guests in to lecture and I was impressed with his ability to deliver on that promise right off the bat. It did give a real world application to the theory we read about in our first assignment, which was extremely dry, so I was very happy to sit and listen!

Other than that, activities were standard. There was a surprisingly beautiful, mostly cloudy sky over the lake during sunset on my drive home. It is definitely starting to feel like autumn outside! The seasons are changing.

Day 5

Today was very enjoyable, as I got to kick it off in a ballet class up the street in the dance department. It was the first time I have tried to take class since July, which felt better than I predicted it would! Funny enough, I was inspired to get moving after waking up sore Tuesday morning. We did some biking over the long weekend when I was visiting my boyfriends family's boat, which is a hobby I'd like to pursue more. Just need to acquire a bike!

I managed to squeeze in a trip to the grocery store in between ballet class and actual class. In addition to biking, another interest I have developed, particularly in the last two weeks since living alone, is cooking! I have found I feel a lot better when I make my food and know exactly what the ingredients are. We made a ton of food to take the boat, which was all reasonably healthy, and today I tried a recipe for quinoa (a whole grain) and made a pizza for dinner. It's nice to have leftovers to last throughout the week! I also seem to have enough Tupperware/Pyrex containers to store everything, so the fridge is nice and neat.

My human growth and development class today was a breeze compared to sitting through the 2 hour classes from yesterday. (My hand definitely hurt from taking way too many notes when I came home last night!) Nothing new there, other than my professor making ridiculous comments out of nowhere. I had to stop myself from laughing thinking about how badly I wanted to tell my best friend about one of them!

After class, I headed back to the dance department to help with the restaging of a piece I worked on with a renowned choreographer this summer. They are going to perform it on the program for Homecoming/Parents' Weekend, which is in less than a month! The cast has learned the entire 9-minute piece in two hours, which is a very impressive feat. Now, we just have to focus on making it performance ready and clean, clean, clean. The students are very talented and it helps that half the cast was present when it was originally set.

So back to reading and studying for the next two days of anatomy quizzes in lecture and lab! Great fun. Lots of flashcards, coloring diagrams, and review questions in the book. I'm already nerding out and it hasn't even been a 5-day week yet. Yikes.

Day 4

After a very fun-filled Labor Day weekend, I came back to the apartment last night to laundry, studying, and a couple dishes. While in the middle of tackling all of those duties, I received a phone call from the retirement home where I had put in my application a couple weeks ago for a position as a part-time dietary aide. The woman on the other end sounded a bit brash, and I jumped at the opportunity to set up an interview today at noon.

However, I got along great with her as soon as I realized she was excited to have an educated employee/nursing student (me!) join her team. She was looking for someone to specifically fill a 7-10:30 a.m. shift, with which my schedule coordinates. I will get to work alongside dietitians and nurses to learn about long-term care, which is great since I won't start nursing clinicals until the spring.

I am very glad I took my last couple weeks at home to get all my tests done for those clinicals, i.e. be a human pincushion for my family physician. It looks like that is going to expedite the hiring process and get me working ASAP! My degree and current nursing student status doesn't exactly hurt either.

So a job. Check. Things are looking up! Time for an afternoon/evening at school.

Day 3

Happy Friday!

Today I had to tap back into a senior-year style class schedule, as I had my only 8 a.m. class this term, my lab for anatomy and physiology I. It was a little tough waking up, as boyfriend was here with me (asleep because of his 4-day week law school class schedule), but coffee in the travel Dunkin Donuts mug really helped.

I am finding the material in anatomy to be a review of topics I studied from back in high school, which isn't a new realization. (I discovered that college was much easier after I persevered through one of the toughest and most competitive public high schools in Ohio.) Ironically enough, as the professor reviews the directional anatomy terms, I see them written onto a diagram by one of my best friends from home, who is now in her 3rd year of medical school. On some level, that knowledge comforts me, and I feel like this is the right place for me to be taking my education.

On another good note, I am letting my guard down and making new friends from all different kinds of backgrounds as I begin this new journey. I do not want to seem like I think I'm above my peers in this program because I have a bachelor's degree. I really appreciate all the new perspectives I've gained, even though it's only been a couple days, and am excited to continue getting to know everyone in my class.

So it's definitely relaxing time, which is a lot different than any kind of true undergraduate Friday I've ever had! And time for a happy holiday weekend - no class until Tuesday.

Day 2

As I haven't been to any classes yet today, I thought I would take the chance to give credit to the people who have made this transition back into school a worthwhile venture. My parents have been incredibly supportive and I really can't thank them enough for everything they have helped me out with financially, from health care to a car, cell phone to my beautiful apartment and everything in it.

However, another person who has made a huge impact by helping me through this process is my best friend. We met in the dance department in college and it was immediately evident we were going to have a wonderful friendship. (We even had the same S.A.T. score!) And it has been nothing but that - we have seen each other through academics, dance struggles and accomplishments, guys, confrontations with our mothers, and have had an absolute riot of a time together the whole way.

The first year out of college, when I moved 11 hours west to dance with the company, she was at home in rural Pennsylvania with no cell phone reception. I went over a year without seeing her, almost without speaking to her on any kind of regular basis, and I believe that was part of the reason why the first year was so hard.

She is now in law school and dancing near my home in Ohio. We both laughed this morning on the phone about how awful the separation was because we now see each other at least once a month, if not more frequently, and we speak almost every day.

Today we got on the topic of other girls (specifically exes, past hook-ups, and randoms at the bar) trying to affect our relationships with our boyfriends with their unnecessary drama. They just don't seem to grasp that the guys aren't interested in them, but don't want to be mean about it.

Don't all females develop some kind of embarrassment filter? Or pride? Honey, if he doesn't show up where you think he will after you've made the effort to get there, he obviously doesn't care about you or your time. You can get mad at yourself, think he's as distraught as you are, and call him months later for two hours to play "Remember When?" with the belief you're entwined souls that lost each other along the way.

News flash: He hasn't given you 20 seconds of thought in those couple months. Get over it.

Also, we understand 21-year-olds flaunting around their barely legal business, trying to chase after 25, 26, 27-year-old guys. We were there, just as stupid, and we learned too. If he has a girlfriend, and you have to initiate every conversation...

...More breaking news: He doesn't want you. Again, get over it.

Yes, my best friend and I recognized we have both behaved as such in the past but took the hint and moved on because, let's face it, it's embarrassing not to do so! You're only giving ammunition to the current girlfriend to laugh at you and your absurd behavior.

Or, better yet, mock you in writing.

Here's to best friends! More tomorrow on what happens in class.

Day 1

I left for class a bit early so I could drop off my rent, hand in my physical/immunization forms to the nursing secretary, and print out syllabi for my anatomy and anatomy lab classes that will meet tomorrow and Friday, respectively. At the second apartment complex I lived at in Missouri, rent HAD to be turned in on the 1st of the month with no grace period. Even though my new rental agency graciously grants the extra few days, I am now very aware of the 1st of the month because I still feel like a late fee could be looming!

But I digress. After handing in my paperwork and successfully finding the printing station in the library, I enjoyed free coffee from the cafe and waited for 2 p.m. to roll around.

It wasn't hard to get back into the swing of entering a new class, surveying my classmates, and waiting for the new professor to distribute papers and call roll. The only aspect that made me uncomfortable were the number of desks in the room. All very small and close together in rows, I felt like I was in coach on a full flight. I can only imagine how my large male classmates were feeling!

Right at 2, a kind-looking, older man came into the room, told us he was 77, and keeps teaching because he believes in why he is there.

Then he said, "Today is when we find out where the bear shits in the buckwheat," and walked among us to distribute our syllabi. He also asked who in the room were nursing students because he liked them best. I was happy to be among those raising their hands!

Of course right when he walked by my desk, he clipped his foot on the front leg (Wasn't I worried about how close together the rows were?) and went lurching forward, grabbing at my classmate sitting in front of me and to the left for support. After which, he announced he had a hip replacement the previous year and felt like he may have dislocated it. Great.

After going through the syllabus in its entirety, we started making name plates out of note cards to sit on our desks and writing information about ourselves and our education on the inside. He asked about everyone's class level and who had already finished college, because it was noted on his roster. I told him I had graduated from main campus in 2008.

We were free to go after completing our note cards. On my way out, he asked what my major was and I told him, "Dance," to which he replied, "Couldn't make a living out of it, could you?"

I showed him my ankle and was glad I had written my professional dance background on the inside of the index card. Why do I feel like I spend my life proving to people their first impressions about me are wrong? I should have told him I received one of the college's highest graduation honors.

Guess he'll have to make do with the excellent work I plan on turning in for him.

Until tomorrow! Up next: anatomy and physiology I and contemporary social problems.