Back to School. . .

And no, I'm not talking about my kids!  I finally applied to do my masters in Counselling Psychology, which has always been my goal, and got accepted!  I started my first courses the beginning of May.  One of the courses that I registered for was an intercession course, which was supposed to run from the beginning of May to the middle/end of June.  The other course is through distance, and runs the full term, from the beginning of May to August.

I was feeling very nervous attending my first class.  It had been so long since I'd been in school, and when you have small children your brain just doesn't work as well as it used to.  I wondered if I would be capable of it.  It didn't help when I got to class that I discovered that the course had actually be further condensed to run for the month of May, with us finishing everything up on the 28th.  I went into panic mode.  Needless to say, the month was crazy.  Monday and Tuesday evening and all day Saturday every week was spent in class.  I missed bedtime at least twice a week, and my poor husband had to navigate swimming lessons with the two boys by himself.  The evenings that I wasn't in class, I was out doing assessment for the course (the course was on assessment for counsellors, so I had to actually assess a child).  During the day, I had four children in the house (my own two, plus the two that I am baby-sitting), so I couldn't get work done during that time.  I say all of that to finally say, I survived it!  Not only did I survive it, but I survived it and pulled off a great mark in the course!  My professor was great, and his course and manner of teaching was a great way to ease myself back into study mode.  I'm so happy!

The second course, I'm not quite as enthused with.  I'm fairly certain that I will avoid online courses from this point on.  It is boring, and I really do not enjoy reading from the computer screen as much as I have to.  It's difficult being willing to 'put yourself out there' with your comments and participation when you've never met the people you are conversing with.  So, we'll see how that course goes!

Overall, I'm feeling good.  I'm feeling like I might have a future in my career choice afterall, and I'm feeling that I'm finally accomplishing my goals and doing something with the education I already have.  I'm happy that my children will get to experience seeing me study and going to school, seeing how important that is to me.  And I'm happy that I will finally get to be doing what I've wanted to do when I'm done the program.  Now, I just have to maintain that motivation and keep plugging through the rest of my program!