“When it’s Time to Change, You’ve Gotta Rearrange”…

Do I have the Brady Bunch song stuck in your head now?  It’s definitely stuck in mine!  Okay soo….

I think I may have frightened a few people with my depressing conclusion to my You Guys make Me Smile post.  Well, here’s the letter I sent out to my friends and family to let them know what I have decided to do with the rest of my life.

So I didn't get into the nursing program and am pretty much ready to walk-away.  My fall back plan has always been teaching elementary school, but preferred nursing for the money aspect.  However, I've always known in my heart that teaching is what I really wanted to do.

Thursday I went in and talked to the SPU [Seattle Pacific University, a private-expensive university], advisor and learned some things...

1. To go the 'typical' education route it would be another 2.5 years of school.  Majority of the classes I've already taken won't count towards that degree.  The typical education route is where you get a Bachelors in something like English, Math, etc and then do the teaching certification after (like 5 quarters)
2. I'm close to getting a degree in Communication (wasn't sure what you could do with one at the time but liked the idea of being done), since learned I could do journalism, writing, or even teaching just not the traditional way.  I'd get my BS and then do the certification while working.

After learning that I thought #2 was the better option for me.  So I'm thinking of a communications degree, I do love to talk, write and be with people....who knows maybe I'm destined to be a writer?  I've had a lot of compliments on my blog writing, so who knows!  However, that then began the journey of HOW, WHERE & WHEN?  Plus with my student loans I have to be enrolled in at least 6 credits/ quarter to not have to pay it back.

SPU is very expensive (about $7k/quarter if I go fulltime of 15 credits), and I already have a lot of loans from the last 2 years.  The only reason I really went to SPU was because my chances of getting into the nursing program were greater...guess I proved them wrong - lol!  I asked my advisor "what if i took classes at BCC [Bellevue Community College] to save some money", and then answer I got was "those grades won't transfer to SPU".  So it sounded like the best bet was to take classes at SPU.  However, I still had questions....

• I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go that route, was I sure I wanted to do teaching? 
• Should I make such a big (and expensive decision) all in a few minutes?
• Was it smarter to sign up for a class just so I don't have to pay back my loan right now for several hundred-several thousand dollars, or just pay the $50ish/month of my loan for now and think about what's right to do.

Needless to say, I chose the 3rd option.  I'm not 100% sure I want to do teaching and/or communication and really didn't want to spend the money if I didn't need to.  I plan to work more this quarter plus meet with several people: SPU career center & teaching department and other schools with teaching programs such as UW [University of Washington]. 

I'm excited with my new options, I could potentially start in the spring next year and be done the year after!  I'm just ready to be done and at this point don't really care what it entails!  I just want that diploma!  I also will resubmit my nursing application next year to several schools again, just for one last hoorah, I figure I have nothing to lose!

Thanks so much for all your help, love and support!!  I really appreciate it!

Cori

So there it is, my new plan.  I hope this will be my final change before I graduate, I really just want to done with school.  I sure hope I’m making the right decision, but time will tell!