I am a keener

My course materials arrived on Friday from Athabasca University. I was excited to see them, but all of a sudden felt a pretty overwhelming feeling of doom. I thought, "What am I getting myself into? Why am I going back to school, I swore I would never be a student again when I finished massage school?!" I opened up the materials and looked at the different assignments and quizzes and exams that would evaluate me in these courses.

In the biology class I am taking there are four assignments to do and four quizzes as well as three midterms and a final exam. The assignments are pretty much entirely short answer questions and the quizzes are done over the phone with my tutor (the prof). The midterm and final exams, I will have to arrange to write them either at the U of S or SIAST when the time comes.

I also enrolled in a nutrition class. I chose it, because if I do get accepted into nursing it will count as the nutrition requirement for a nursing degree. The evaluation for that class involves only an assignment, a midterm and a final exam. The assignment involves keeping a detailed food diary for two days (including measuring or weighing everything I eat and drink). Then you compare it to the Canada food guide, then use a CD ROM program they give you to analyze it even more. Then you write about your level of activity, and decide if you are getting what you need from what you are eating. I think it should be enlightening.

I decided to crack open the books tonight. I had nothing else to do and thought, why not get a head start?! I got out the Biology text and read through chapter one and took notes and at the end I did the chapter end quiz and was able to answer all the questions. I will keep reading and see how it goes. I do not officially start my classes until July 1st, but I am free to start now if I like. The only thing is that if I have any questions or concerns about anything I am not able to contact my tutor until after July 1st.

I was thinking tonight about these classes. I am going to do my best to use my free time to work on these classes. I have a lot of days where I have long breaks at work, or mornings off, or evenings with nothing to do. I am hoping I will be motivated to use those times to study or work on assignments so that when the time comes that, for instance, I am going on summer holidays, it will not kill me to take a few days off.