An overdue lesson in overcoming

This week I finished my third semester of college at WGU. It was a monumental semester for me because I had to overcome some mental barriers to complete it. One of these mental barriers was my perception as a science student. In order to better understand this statement requires a trip down memory lane. 

After high school, I attended SUU in Southern Utah. I had two scholarships to attend that college: academic and theater. It was a dream for me to be able to go there AND get the scholarships, too--particularly the theater scholarship, as there's only one freshman female and one freshman male who receive that particular scholarship each year. I'd wanted to attend that university since my sophomore year of high school, when I attended the 2-week long Governor's Honors Academy there. And from my sophomore to senior years of high school, we had Shakespeare theater competitions on the campus every fall as well, which increased my love for the place. Three weeks before I left my hometown to start school in Cedar City, I met Josh. He had just moved to Tremonton (in northern Utah) and I took an instant liking to him. We emailed and called, and had a long-distance relationship while I was away at college. Over Christmas Break, I came to Salmon with him and it was then that I decided that I wanted to marry him.

Josh and Kala during Christmas Break 1997 in Salmon

Josh felt the same and he wanted to get married sooner, rather than later. At that time, SUU was on a trimester system. I'd attended both fall and winter, and I was debating if I should enroll in the spring trimester as well. I had enough credits earned that I just needed to take two more classes in order to earn my Associate's Degree. The two classes were a biology class and a biology lab. Science was my least favorite subject, and I dreaded staying another semester, living with roommates I didn't like, just to take those science classes which weren't my favorite. Ultimately, I decided to quit after winter semester in March, move back home to Tremonton, get married that spring, and I would transfer my credits to Weber State University (which was closer in distance) and take the final science classes there.

After I got married in April of 1998, I applied at WSU and was accepted, but when I found out how much it would cost to take just the classes necessary to obtain my Associate's Degree, I realized I couldn't afford it. Josh had just bought a house, and his income paid for the house and all the other monthly bills we had. Since we were recently married with no children, I no longer qualified for the financial aid limits, so without scholarships like I had at SUU, and with just the minimum-wage job I had, it wasn't something I could afford to pay for. I didn't feel good about taking out student loans, because we were trying to keep our credit good and our debt down, so my plan to finish schooling and earn my 2-year degree was no longer obtainable. 

Throughout the years, I've have moments when I felt bad about the decision I made to quit school. I occasionally regret that I didn't finish the last semester of my freshman year and get married in the summer instead. I had all the tools necessary to be successful while at SUU: I had two scholarships, a part-time work study job, and lots of opportunities in the theater program which was a huge asset because I planned on being a theater teacher when I graduated. But at the same time, I'd struggled with my roommates, I was so far from home, and I missed being with Josh, and my grades were starting to plummet as a result. At that time, I thought those two science classes that I needed would just be the end of me and my college career anyway. 

Fifteen years after quitting college, I decided it was time to return. I'd always said that when my youngest child Kanyon was in school all day, I would go back. So in October of 2013, when he was in first grade, I applied at WGU. I took their entrance exam, got my AP exams and SUU transcripts sent in, applied for financial aid, and I waited. They accepted me as a student, I was approved for financial aid, and they transferred 22 of my 60 previously earned credits to my degree plan. I officially became a student at Western Governor's University (an online school based out of Salt Lake City, Utah) in January of 2014. 

So much has changed between the first and last college I.D. card issued!

Remember how I said this was a monumental semester for me? Well, I just barely completed two science classes: Integrated Science and the Applications class (AKA lab) to go with it. Those were similar to the two classes that I needed to get my Associate's Degree so many years ago, but quit before taking them. I dreaded starting them again this time around, and I got all the other classes for this semester done first. By mid-April, all I had left was the science classes: both were 4 credits each, and had a lot of material to cover and multiple projects to complete. I kept telling myself that I couldn't do it; I would look at all I had to get done in the course work, and I didn't think I was capable of completing the tasks. And on top of that, I was experiencing some emotional issues--which just increased my mental block towards teaching and completing my college work in general. So for the second half of April and all of May, I didn't do any work in those science classes. In fact, I didn't do any college work, period. So when the kids' school got out at the beginning of June, and I no longer had to work every day, I decided it was time to just buckle down and get to work on my college classes.

My current college semester ends on the last day of July, and if I didn't get these two classes done before then, then I would be put on probation with the university, I would lose my financial aid, and I would potentially be in the same position as before. I didn't want to have two science classes get between me and my degree again, like they did in 1998, so all of June and July I've been working my butt off trying to finish the classwork and tests and projects. It hasn't been easy, and it's taken up most of my summer thus far, but I did it! I got all the required work done and I am so proud to say that I passed both classes!! I did all the classwork and took the final for the Integrated Natural Science class in June, and submitted all the Science Applications projects in July. And surprisingly, I've mostly enjoyed taking the science classes! I actually understood it more this time around, and appreciated the aspects of science that I never did before. It's been a positive experience for me to take these classes. I don't know why I had the mental stigma for 17 years that I wasn't compatible with learning science, but overcoming that mental block has become a gratifying personal victory for me!

I was elated when I found that I scored an 80% on the Integrated Science final.
There was a lot of information covered in the class and I was so nervous to take the exam!
The class included physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, and astronomy.

With the completion of these two science classes, I have now finished my 3rd semester at WGU, am back up to the 60-credit mark again (which is where I was at when I quit SUU), and am now exactly 50% done with my schooling to earn my elementary education K-8 degree! I feel like everything from here on will be forward motion with my schooling! And I say "bring it!"--I'm ready to tackle the remainder of my schooling to finish what I started way back in 1997!