A New Semester

It’s been a while. As you can tell by the space between this post and the last, I have fully taken advantage of my vacation time. I don’t have to be occupied every second of the day like some people. I’m fine just sitting around… for a while, anyway. Boredom afflicts everyone from time to time; I’m certainly not immune to its effects.

A lot has gone on since November. There were final projects and tests, Christmas break, and other various events that either made me happy or made me a very sad person. That’s putting it nicely. I’ll try not to go into too much detail. This is supposed to be a primarily academic blog, so I’ll spare you most of the personal happenings.

Finals at Agnes were rough. We had a little over a week to decide when we wanted to take the tests (unless they were pre-scheduled by teachers). I decided to wait until the last Monday and Tuesday of the semester to take my tests simply because I wanted to make the most of my time. Sure, I wanted to go home; but I didn’t want to be a crazy stress-ball, either. I had to take two tests: psychology and Greek history. I had a final paper for my FYS (which was a little whacky in itself).

Psychology was just… odd. I remember there being a question that wanted me to connect Freud’s defense mechanisms to a “friend” constantly failing her driving exam. Even for someone studying the stuff for months, I wracked my brain for any sort of coherent, logical answer. It was so open-ended. There were no details other than what I told you, so I found myself making up scenarios like: Maybe she got into a car accident when she was young. Even though she doesn’t remember it, it has been repressed (that’s a defense mechanism), and still affects the way she drives. There’s fear left over – she can’t necessarily explain it – but that’s why she does so badly each time. Far-fetched and weird, but I got an A in the class.

Greek history was another story. I was so confident going in. Dr. Abbot practically gave us an outline of the test; the dates are what killed me. I figured we should know the “most important” dates, like when the Parthenon was started/finished, or when Alexander the Great died. But he threw a few loops in there. We also had a final paper for that class, too. That didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, either. I wrote about differing views of Athenian democracy. I had a lot of sources (a majority of them primary sources) and more pages than what was required… and yet I still got an 89. Disappointment abounds.

For FYS, we chose our own topic for our paper. I, being the geek that I am, chose to compare and contrast vampires and Greek deities. Surprised? Didn’t think so. It was, amazingly, a really… fruitful, for the lack of a better word, topic. I found much more than I anticipated. I’ll spare you the details here, too. But I got an A in that course as well, so I’m content.

Of course you can imagine that I was relieved when finals and the semester were over. This is only half true. Because I was on a payment plan of $500 per month in order to stay in school, I thought I had a payment due by the 31st of December. I was wrong. I got a phone call around the 12th saying that my final payment was due the 16th. I didn’t have the money by then because we were waiting on a child support check from my father. He hadn’t been paying it for a while (for various reasons), so my grandmother has had to fill in the gaps (which kills my heart slowly). So my classes were dropped despite the fact that I explained to them my situation. I did eventually pay at the end of the month, but I still had to reapply for my classes that were – at that point – all waitlisted.

This isn’t the end, though. I went back to Agnes at the beginning of this semester to redo my promissory note and set up another payment plan. However, the spring semester only has four months because they want all money in before May. This is very bad, because now I have to pay $700+ per month to stay enrolled. I can’t do this. Ridiculously enough, that same day, I went into the Accounting Office and the woman at the desk told me everything had been paid for. I was shocked and in total disbelief. I had no idea about anyone paying off the rest of my balance. So they did a little investigating. They found two checks for thousands of dollars with my ID# on them from a Mr. Couch; I know no such person. They eventually located whom the checks were really supposed to go to, but really? Did that really happen? I can’t even begin to explain my sadness and my rage. It felt like a slap in the face from God.

Nevertheless, I got all of my classes in order and am steadily approaching the end of January. The payment is due soon. I am in desperate need of a job off-campus (on top of two work-study jobs). I’ve already spoken to Dean Cannady about transferring next year to UGA perhaps, just so HOPE covers most of my expenses. I love Agnes and the people here, but I can’t survive like this. I’ve applied for dozens of scholarships, heard back from none of them; I don’t know what to do. I’m crossing my fingers.