Many of you know that I started my pathway to return to school this fall (this past September). I have a variety of options because I am not a horrible student by any stretch of the imagination, however, funds are limited. We have 2 college aged children. Granted, one of them is currently serving his mission, but he’ll be back in school in January 2019. Adding a third load of college expenses – both in time and money – was going to be crazy.
Timing is everything!
Alas, we made the plunge. There were a lot of reasons. The timing was just right – right then. I did a lot of research and found that feeling right does not make it right. Financially, going back to school is a burden. I mean if you are as amazingly awesome as my oldest son, Andrew, that has a full-ride scholarship to the University of Texas thanks to the amazing Terry Foundation, then the cost is just a blip on the radar. If you are like my middle son, Kyle, and myself it is a bit more costly. Kyle is registered at Collin College (community college) in our neighboring county as there are no community colleges based out of Denton County believe it or not.
I did my research. I kept getting the promptings to check into Pathway again. I am so glad that I did. I registered as soon as registration opened back up for the BYU-Idaho Pathway program. It has been one of the best decisions I have made thus far in my education process. Affordable, amazingly intense, and so easy to do.
Today, I am 7 weeks into the first semester.
Grateful for Inspired Programs
I am truly grateful for the inspired programs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love how they help you grow spiritually and temporally. Not only is the growth fascinating, but due to divine inspiration, these programs work hand in hand with each other to help best fit you the student.
The Self-Reliance Initiative
I am finding a lot of overlaps between my participation in the church created/sponsored Self-Reliance Initiative. I am currently taking the Starting and Growing My Business portion of the initiative (class). It is amazingly intense for being 100% free to me as the consumer/student. However, many of the things we are learning in this class are being reinforced in the BYU-Idaho PathwayConnect program. Or maybe it is the other way around, where the PathwayConnect program is being reinforced by the Self-Reliance Initiative. I haven’t quite figured that out – yet.
BYU-Idaho and Pathway Worldwide
Part of my assignments in the BYU-Idaho Pathway Program include a lot of intense spiritual and scriptural study. I mean, a lot. It is way more intense than I ever expected. It is actually pretty awesome! I am taking 2 classes this semester – General Studies 120 (Life Skills) and Religion 121 (Book of Mormon [first half]). The timing has lined up nicely along with everything else in my life.
I am not crazy to think that this next year will be the most productive year in a standpoint from what the final goal is – complete my Bachelor’s Degree (finally), but when I looked at the bigger picture it made way more sense.
Now that I have been participating in the program for 7 weeks, I can see that this is exactly what I needed and it will be moving me along the steps to completing that Bachelor’s Degree even if it originally appeared to be 1 year of fluff classes. I am getting credit for all 15 hours of classes that I will be taking during this first year of the program and they will transfer directly (and officially) to BYU-Idaho once I complete the three semesters involved with the PathwayConnect program.
A year from now I will be officially applying to BYU-Idaho. Now those are words that I am sure NONE of you ever thought that you would hear come out of my mouth – ever. I certainly never thought that I’d ever say it. That is the beauty of change – things simply change. We have to adapt to the change or get left behind. I am done being left behind.
Not looking back
For now, I am not looking back. There are days that are hard. It is a lot of work. It is a lot of reading. It is what many would call a lot of busy work. I am enjoying every minute of it. I want you to and will need you to remind me of that when I tell you that it is too hard. There will be days like this week where I feel like I am drowning and just want to quit. I am not a quitter. I am going to keep going. I am going to do this. I am going to do hard things.
The example I set today, with me doing something hard, is an example that I set for my children. NEVER GIVE UP!
This applies to so many things in our lives. It is a principle of behavior and attitude that I want to instill in my children, even when it is hard and there does not appear to be any good reason to continue. Why would we? Life is for enjoyment. There are so many happy things in life. Why look for more? Why work for more?
The answer is simple, we are meant for eternity. It is our job to make sure that we live up to our potential.
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