I Can't Believe I'm Finished

Yesterday was my last official day of school, and my final term was killer. I don't know if it was because the work was so difficult or because I was just anxious to be finished. I'm pretty sure it was the latter. I started my journey as a return student at Kaplan University e-college three years ago this month. The terms are not like regular college terms; there are no two-three month breaks in between terms. It's ten weeks on, one week off-all year long. It's pretty cool, though, because I got to do my work on my time, within reason, of course.

I only had two courses each term; that was more than enough when I was raising my kids at the same time. Lettie was only a month old when I started and I learned to type one-handed because I was nursing her at the same time my seminars were taking place. She actually grew up with me doing school work on a constant basis. Ty and Zach were five and three, and were old enough to understand what I was doing. They didn't like it much because it took time away from them, but I had to do it. As I got closer to the end, they got more and more antsy. They wanted me to finish as badly as I did.

So this last term was filled with one written assignment after another; both classes had a lot of writing for me to do. I didn't mind because I like writing, but when so many projects were due at the same time, it was hard. I kept up, though, and got everything submitted on time. I submitted my final project for the Crisis Intervention course on Saturday, the 13th, which left me three days to get my Capstone final done. It had to be turned in on Tuesday, the 16th. My kids were nervous and whiny, but I explained that I only had that one project left to complete and then I would be completely finished. I promised them that, if they left me alone, I would have the project complete before they walked in from summer school on Tuesday, at 4:15p.m. They left me alone.

I forced myself to stay up late nights to keep working on it, sometimes not going to bed before 1:00a.m.; and I sat at my computer all day, only taking breaks to feed the kids or myself. I thought my butt was going to stick to this chair permanently. Come Tuesday morning, I put the boys on the bus, gave Lettie her chocolate milk and some breakfast, and sat down at the computer again. I was almost finished and left the tedious parts for the very end. As I began writing up my tables and inserting page numbers, my neck and shoulders burned as if on fire. I went down the tables and topics, flipping back and forth to the project to find out which topics were on which pages, and putting the page numbers on the tables of contents and authorities.

I had only five left to do on the table of authorities, and I was counting down, my shoulders aching, and the clock ticking. It was 4:00. I had to be done before the boys got home. Five, four, three, only two more to go, last one. As I inserted the final page number, my whole being was flooded with such a sense of relief that I started to cry uncontrollably. I clicked ‘Save’ on the document one last time. Lettie was patting my arm asking what was wrong, and I didn't have the words to explain to a three-year-old child how happy I was. I was just signing in to my Kaplan homepage to submit my project when the boys walked in the door. I had kept my promise. I was finished! I couldn’t believe it. All that was left was waiting on grades and feedback.

I checked into my classrooms every day starting on Wednesday. I knew my grades wouldn’t be in that soon, but I had to hope. Finally, on Friday, I had my grade for the Capstone project. I got a perfect score with some wonderful commentary from my professor. On Saturday, I got my Crisis Intervention grade back, also with some great comments. I got A’s in both classes: 100% in Capstone, and 99.8% in Crisis Intervention. My GPA had been 3.99 since my second term and it is still there. I’m graduating Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Paralegal Studies. I’m so proud of myself. At the age of 41 I’m finally getting my college degree; a full 25 years after I graduated high school.

Now I can hang out with my kids for the rest of the summer, and get started on my internship in the fall. If everything works out the way I plan, I’ll be able to build a freelance clientele while I’m doing the internship and will still be able to work from home so I can be here for my kids. I can give them a better life than I had growing up; and we can live the life I’ve dreamed of for us; that we’ve dreamed of together. Who says perseverance and hard work don’t pay?