Tassel Hassle: College Life in the Fast Lane
Posted by Sharon Cece on January 26th, 2009
Most of us who are into classic rock remember the Eagles’ song “Life in the Fast Lane” (surely make you lose your mind). Well, that pretty much describes my fusion of an online course load with husband, kids, work and life. Some days, I really thought I would lose my mind. Blame it on that two-word teaser: Time Management. It’s a misnomer anyway; no one really manages time, time manages you.
So there I was with a household to run, two kids to care for full-time and now two course loads per semester. At that time I was also doing editing and custom baking projects. How did I manage?
Well, I managed pretty much as well as everyone else. I implemented the “WIN” philosophy, which Lou Holtz championed (W-I-N: What’s Important Now). Family is very important and I always put my husband and kids first BUT…. going back to school was also very important to me and for once I wanted to give something to myself, just for me. So, there were times when I said to the kids, mom’s closing the door, fend for yourself. The bare minimum got done. The bills got paid, the kids and cat and husband usually had meals even though sometimes it was peanut butter and jelly (suuure, cats love peanut butter and jelly). My work projects got finished on time. The rest–clothes, cleaning, extracurricular, social life, hair and makeup, sometimes my own dinner–was put on the backburner when I had to complete a test or quiz or do a school project. And that also meant that the rest of the family had to pitch in and do some of my work for a while.
I remember one panicked middle-of-the-night moment when my then online course load whizzed through my head like Seattle Slew down the homestretch. This particular course, Methods of Social Research, was my most excruciatingly difficult online course ever and, naturally, my final course prior to graduating. Each week we had, count with me: a quiz, an individual project, a report, a test, a threaded discussion and a group collaboration. Each week. We also had mid-term projects and a final 40-page project replete with graphs, computations and a questionnaire with statistical analysis and summations. Oh yes, it was the nightmare course; I‘m sweating just writing about it. So anyway, there I was at 2 AM…staring at the ceiling, wide-eyed, heart hammering and for first time in my academic life, convinced there was no way I would get it all done.
Well, obviously I did get it done. You just do. You order pizza or husband makes dinner (always cereal, but it is a food product after all). You study while they’re in the fast food play area, or work on homework at your child’s doctors office while he’s waiting to be called. You wake up early before anyone else gets up and with a steaming cup of coffee in the quiet, early morning light, you get a few pages done. Or you stay up late when everyone else has gone to bed. You email your professor, your TA, every other student on the roster if you have to and plead, what do I need to do to get this finished. You work it, because you know as tough as it is and as crazy as life gets, you see the finish line. And crossing that line, no matter how much hassle it takes, is worth the tassel you get.
