It is ALMOST OVER!!!! Lessons Learned

Oh, it is crazy.. time is finally winding down, the semester is almost over!!! They say the first one is always the hardest, well that was an understatement. I think this semester was hard too, because having been in school before, I "thought" I would have the basic skills down to be able to work through things without too much trouble. {HA HA HA HA!! oh no...} The other saying came into play, "If you do not use it, you loose it". Well, learning is the goal and I finally got it, took 2 1/2 months but, the important thing is I got it. :)

Well, the good stuff first; Abnormal Psychology is done!! (for me anyway :), no exam needed much to my excitement and probably the professors relief, I got my "A".. it was down to the wire, but I got it with 2 points to spare and one assignment still left to grade.
(WHOA HOOO!!!!, 1 down 4 to go).

First Stressful thing is the FINAL!!!! paper for Intro to Human Services. UGhhhhh. Well, it is almost done... it has been like childbirth all over again :....<, why does it have to be such a difficult process to communicate in my native and only "controlled" language????? Why.....Why....Why! Well, luckily I found an awesome grammer corrector, Stylewriter, that works and that I can learn from, it is awesome!!! it runs through word (PRAISE!!!!), as I do everything written, even my grocery list in word. {LOL). I love this thing. Hopefully, it will really pay off with and increase my grade on this paper. This class is the only one that I am concerned about.. it will go down to the wire and hopefully come out good. however, worse case senerio is a "C", which I know is not the end of the world but, I had enough of that in High School, "A" work but because of all the junk, it was deemed "C" mediocre.. :0(UGGGGHHHHH!) Oh well.... what are you going to do, get out the Serenity prayer and turn up the volume on the IPOD!!!

Then the only other stressor, (ha ha) is the Group Presentation in Group Processing. Well that at least I feel more in control about. I have worked and tweeked and tweeked until I am pretty satisfied (miracle!!!). I still have feelers out for feedback from some friends and that is not due until D (demo) day, December 10th..

Other than that things are pretty easy in the other classes. A take home exam in Ethics, (Yeah!!! my notes are almost verbatem this should be easy!!). I think one more Exam in Working with Diversity, and it is open notebook too.. (SWEET!!!!)

I will have made it through the first of my 4 semesters, collected my credits and am a little closer to the PRIZE, my diploma!!! I love it when a plan works. If only we could speed this up a bit, that would be great!!! But, Rome was not built in a day. I will have to be Patient... not really in my nature, but you can teach a dog new tricks, so I am learning to be patient.

A few other lessons from this semester:

All the planning in the world will not change an accident or predict human responses, therefore trying to predict everything is a waste of time and energy and just stresses you out.

Problem solving is best done, when a problem is identified. It does not really work before something is a "problem".

Less than expected (or hoped for) results does not reflect on your ability as much as it does the execution of the ability. Limitations are real and must be considered when setting your expectations.

Goals and expectations are two very different things. Goals are positive and motivate. Expectations are not a good idea and usually just irritate.

There is life after a major blunder or bad debate or paper.

Perfection (100%) all the time is quite an illusion even with all the effort. Humans are only capable of some perfection. True success is how you deal with the lower percentages.

Focus, determination, and perserverance are more than words, they are mindsets! (PON intended).

Good thoughts proceed Good deeds. When a thought goes wrong it is never to late to change it and savage the deed.