Up until my Junior year at college at University of San Francisco, I loved school. I know it sounds strange, but I actually like having a strict schedule of when to get things done, making list, and yes, even doing homework! School has definitely had its ups and downs (cough cough Junior year of high school) for me, but it has mostly been ups with the occasional drama no teenage girl can escape.
Having recognized in high school that I had a fair amount of anxiety, most of the time and not properly treating it, it became out of hand when I was living in San Francisco during my Junior year. Although I had Daniel there with me, I felt out of control most of the time, and my school work suffered a little also. With Dan done with school and ready to either go to Grad School or work, we move back to my hometown of Seattle so I could treat my anxiety problems and we could begin a life together.
I figured transferring to Seattle University (another Jesuit institution) would be a piece of cake. Applying and getting in was not so difficult, but once I was accepted it was all downhill from there. First of all, I lost a bunch of credits because I either
had to take a particular course at Seattle U, or they were not confident in what the course was and syllabus' from those courses were needed to determine if it could fulfill something or not. Second, I hate Quarter Schedules!! You do not go deep enough into any topic for the classes to be interesting, and each quiz and test count for more than in Semester courses. The only upside I can see is if you HATE a class but have to take it, because it will be over pretty quickly. Third, although I had moved back to Seattle, that did not solve my anxiety issues, because I still wasn't getting it properly treated. The result of untreated anxiety, in my case, results in creating a very small world for yourself in which there are as little triggers as possible, and new areas of my life that had not been influenced so much by the anxiety were suffering, some parts indefinitely. I closed myself off from all friends and began to experience social anxiety, something totally new. Anyways, long story short, I had to stop going to school and get my life in order.
I am happy to say that the Evidence Based Treatment Center of Seattle has really begun to give me my life back! Not only are the staff there extremely knowledgeable and kind, but I have seen a big difference just within the first 6 months of weekly exposures and new medication. The personal side of my life has become so much better and since taking time off from school and working full-time I now know what I want to do with my life. I work as a nanny for the first half of the day, to the most adorable baby I know, Kate, then in the afternoons I work at my grade school in the Extended Care program. I love my jobs and that now I know I want to get my Certificate in Early Childhood Education. But before I can do that, I knew I had to address my Bachelor's Degree.
I never in a million years would have guessed that I would not finish my degree at USF in the four years. Not only am I behind my classmates now, but I didn't really know where to finish my degree. I know SU was NOT going to work for me and I don't care for schools as large as the University of Washington so I was a little lost. I had researched City University, but something just didn't quite click. I had always assumed online programs were kind of bogus...but I was wrong. Washington State University has an online program for people in just my position, or in a variety of others (married with kids, legal guardian for younger siblings, full time workers, etc). You receive the same education you would in Pullman or their other campuses but with non-specific class time contribution, homework assignments able to be done and different paces, and of course exams. It really does take a lot of planning and scheduling, but for me that is a dream. I love figuring out the puzzle of when things need to get done, and if possible, if I can do it in the most-efficient and proper way possible.
So with a year of online school while I continue to work full-time will definitely be a challenge but I am hopeful and excited. After the Bachelor's is out of the way, then onto Early Childhood Education I go! Wish me luck!
