Chewymom

So, I hope that both of my blog readers haven’t missed me too terribly much. I had the illusion that once I finished classes and the kids were out of school, we would start enjoying the lazy days of summer. And I would blog. Instead I have traveled in and out of town more times than I can count, and when I have been here, I have either been confined to the laundry room or the pool. That, I suppose, is the one down side to having a pool–I became the instant lifeguard. For the neighborhood. Not that it’s all bad, mind you. I have quite a nice tan, considering I am usually pasty white with a few freckles.

So, a curious thing happened to me this past week. I had a glimpse of God’s sense of humor. Or maybe it was just his providence or his grace, and in my warped mind, I took it as humorous. It doesn’t take much to make me laugh. Which is why I still crack up whenever someone says, “fart.”

So anyway, I had some surprising time to think, and I became aware of a really strong sense that I needed to make a change in my plans. I’m not one to normally get all spiritual about sensing God’s direction in my life, because my God-experiences have more typically been that I weigh out pros and cons, pray, and then follow my heart. But I felt this strong sense that I needed to take a year off from school.

I had applied for nursing school at the end of May, after spending the last two years taking prerequisites and pulling up my GPA from my previous college work at Furman, twenty years ago. During which time I seemed to major in having fun. I still don’t understand why it annoyed my dad when I assured him that I was really becoming a well-rounded person.

Anyway.

I applied to nursing school and was told I would hear about my acceptance sometime in July. I don’t mean to sound cocky, but I knew that I would be accepted because the applications are ranked on a point system. There are a total of 200 possible points, and typically people with scores as low as the 140s-150s get in. I applied with the full 200 points. And until about a week ago, I had every intention of starting class in August and plugging away for the next two years so that I could graduate in 2010 and start working just in time to start putting kids through college. Since Ben has had his heart set on an out of state school since first grade.

But suddenly, I knew I needed a year off. Sally starts Kindergarten in the fall. Lots of field trips I could potentially attend–which is something I have missed out on with most of my other children since I had young ones at home. Sam will be in 5th grade–the last year in elementary school, and my last year to be welcomed by him to eat lunch with him. Drew will be in 8th grade, his last year of middle school, and although I can’t think of anything terribly significant about that, since he would rather stick pins in his eyeballs than have me show up at his school to spend time with him, still–that seems like a milestone year that I should be available to take part in. Ben is heading into his junior year with college applications and testing and such looming. And then Brig will be a senior. His last year of Special Olympic volleyball and basketball games, which take place during the school day. Not to mention the fun paperwork I have ahead as he turns 18.

I was fairly settled in my decision, but still, I kind of wondered if I was making the right decision.

I returned home after a week away and began sorting through the mountains of mail. I picked up an envelope from my community college and tossed it aside, commenting, “…and there’s my acceptance letter….” Later I tore it open, prepared to file it in my special nursing information folder. I glanced over the letter and saw blah, blah, blah…”high standards…” blah, blah, “regret…” blah, blah….WHAT??? REGRET?

I didn’t get in. My perfect 200 points, and I was rejected. My GPA was too low. Okay, now I had already decided not to go, but this was a blow to my ego! I knew I had the GPA. It’s a state law that you must have a 2.5, and I had not only earned a 4.0 at the community college (to counter the previously mentioned GPA from Furman), but I had the highest grade in many of my classes–averages above 100.

And yet the letter was confirmation. I had made the right decision. I did not need to pursue my nursing degree this fall. God’s sense of humor. Or maybe his grace, because he guided me into that decision before I got the rejection letter, allowing me to read it with mild annoyance and a bruised ego, rather than despair and shock. Had I not made the decision to take a hiatus, I would have been devastated. But I was not. Although highly offended would definitely describe my feelings.

So I marched my bruised ego right into the nursing office today to find out what happened. Because even if I’m not attending this fall, by darned, I wanted to be accepted so I could reject them! And besides, I have full intentions of pursuing my goals next year, so I wanted to be sure there really was some weird mistake, and that it wasn’t on my end.

Sure enough, rather than just trust that people at Furman University (or rather, computers at Furman University) can do math, and using the credit hours and quality points they had listed on my transcript, someone who apparently needs to go back and retake basic math had hand added my points on the bottom of my transcript. And forgotten to give me my quality points for one class, effectively making it count as an “F.” And lowering my apparent GPA. When the individual’s numbers came out different than the numbers on Furman’s computer system, the genius trusted…himself. And denied my nursing school app and wrote “nonqualifying GPA” across the top of it.

All is good now, though, because the director of the nursing program has given her approval, noted the error, and assured me that my letter of acceptance will be forthcoming.

And I will promptly reject it and restore my ego.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 5:36 pm and is filed under This and That. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.