Student Journal - Krista Meyers

The Sounds of Summer
July 23, 2008

Wow, I haven’t heard that melody of music in what seems to be an eternity. My attention is no longer focused on my Humanities book, but on that familiar sound. My eyes shift toward the window, through the trees and to the street where a white truck passes by. Yep, it’s the ice cream man!

For some reason I remember the old adage that my Grandma used to say, “The older I get, the quicker the hands on the clock go.” And I must say that I concur. How is it possible that it’s already the 23rd day of July? Only two weeks left of summer classes—unbelievable. I even debated about taking classes this summer, but I’m certainly glad that I did. I’m six credit hours closer to my degree and I didn’t miss one ounce of summertime fun. Despite the fact that the classes are condensed into 8 weeks of intensity, it zoomed by.

I think that I just might prefer the condensed class to the traditional 17 weeks. The atmosphere on campus takes on a different sense, laid back, hassle free. Lots of new faces, as many students are home for the summer, but attend Moraine to get one step closer to their dreams. Parking is not a nightmare. I haven’t had to use the “I-couldn’t-find-a-parking-spot” excuse all summer!

Exciting news came my way last week. I was awarded the Student Government Association Book Scholarship! I’m so excited and honored to have been chosen as one of the recipients. So that coupled with the Joann Karen Basick Memorial Scholarship award, I will be attending classes in the fall for free! Yippee…Yahoo…Peace, Krista.

Looking back...
June 10, 2008

It was September 2006 when I finally met my passion and decided to obtain a college degree, at the age of 40. I drove over to Moraine Valley Community College to meet with an academic advisor. Excitedly, I shared my story about finding my passion of becoming an elementary school teacher. The academic advisor shared with me some requirements I would have to meet before I would be able to register for classes. Since I graduated from high school in 1984, I would be required to take a placement test. “It's no big deal, we just need to gauge where you’re at,” he said in a nonchalant tone. “Yeah, no big deal for him,” I thought. “He's not taking the test. I HATE tests!” Well, fear set in and before you knew it the fall leaves had fallen and I was buying the Christmas beef roast. Weekly calls from friends asking “Did you take your placement test yet?” rendered the same answer of “No, not yet,” only with a different excuse attached to it. The pressure was building because the excuse bucket was running low. The only thing I knew for sure was that I was afraid. I was afraid of failure, afraid of appearing stupid, or even worse, what if I couldn’t answer the questions? Thoughts of my high school struggles also came into play.

The chill of January set in, a snow storm was brewing outside. Sunday was in three days and my friends at church would be asking me “that” question. Really rather than disappointing them again, I jumped in my car and headed on over to the Testing Center. Butterflies filled my stomach, my palms were sweating, and my mind was racing. As I sank into the chair, I took a few deep breaths and hit the enter key.

A few hours later and much to my surprise, I was smarter than I ever gave myself credit for. The tests revealed that I was able to take college-level courses in everything except mathematics. I would need to take a few remedial classes to build my skills and then I would be ready to tackle college algebra. A sense of relief poured over me like the sweet summer rain. Since the semester already started, and fear was still in control, I chose to take one class, which was condensed into 8 weeks. I guess I needed to see how it would be; you know, getting back into the swing of things. Well, lo and behold, “I’m still swinging!”

Five semesters later, I’m maintaining a GPA of 3.64 and have 23 credits under my belt! This is a third of the way to completing my associate’s degree. Deciding to return to school and start living my passion was the best decision I’ve ever made. My only regret is that I let my fears control me and I wasted a whole semester. Eleanor Roosevelt said it best: “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”