School...Was it Worth It..

Over the past few years I have shared on my blog about going back to school. It has consumed a lot of my free time which has affected the blog a little bit but at the same time it has been one of the most rewarding and fulfilling journeys of my life. I had my reservations when I wanted to go back to school and its part of the reason why it took me so long to go back to school. One of my worries was that I would not be as focused as I would need to be in order to be successful. I also wasn't sure how well I would do when I went back to school. Some other worries I had was whether or not I was going to be able to pay for school and whether or not I would be able to get financial aid and if I was going to have to take out these major loans in order to complete my education. However, I rejected some of my thoughts I put faith in myself, and I just took a leap of faith.

Some of the adjustments that I had to make was deciding where I wanted to go and coming up with a plan that I felt at the time would be the best decision for me. I may have mentioned this in an earlier blog that originally, I wanted to go to Western Governors University (WGU). WGU is an online institution, it's a nonprofit and it's very affordable; they also accept financial aid. So, I knew that was not going to be an issue as to whether or not I would be able to pay for it because when I looked at the cost and things like that, I realized that I would be able to pay for it. What my question to myself at that time was, would I be able to focus on an online education after not being in college for 17 years. Another question I asked myself was would it be able to retain my attention for 4 years. After putting all of these thoughts together I decided that the best option for me would be to go to a community college. That way I would be able to go and sit in the classroom with an actual teacher and after two years I would actually have an Associate’s degree and in my mind that would be just enough to keep me motivated to keep pushing forward. Plus, when a potential employer reviews your resume they don't think about the fact that you are currently in school working on a 4-year degree. For whatever reason having some form of a degree on your resume looks awesome. Whether it's an Associate's or it's a Bachelors. So, to just have some type of accomplishment halfway through and not only just an accomplishment, but an accomplishment that was going to increase my net worth, it just seemed like a better option and I was right.

As I started going to school I started mixing my classes where some of the classes would be online and some of the classes would be in the building. Then I started arranging the classes around my children's sports schedules. Their schedules were the heaviest in the fall so during fall quarter all of my classes would be online. The rest of the quarters I would take as many online classes as I could and whichever classes I could not take online I had to take on campus. I did that throughout my entire AA degree. Once I finally completed my AA, I initially was supposed to transfer to the University of Washington Tacoma campus for my bachelor's degree in Business Administration; but something happened. Right after I had finished my AA, I was on my school's website and I noticed that they had a bachelor's program for Healthcare Information Management (HIM). Once I finished my business degree at UW Tacoma my plan was to transfer to WGU for my Master’s in Healthcare Administration. When I began to look at the bachelor's program at TCC, I noticed that their program had everything that relates to what I do now and WGU accepted the degree for their Master’s program. So, I decided to take a chance and register for the Healthcare Information Management BAS degree program. Once I registered for the HIM program I had to apply and send them my resume and the reason for this is because I did not get my associates in Healthcare Information Technology (HIT). Students who come from the HIT program automatically are accepted into the HIM program. So instead of waiting until the following fall to be able to start at the UW, I was able to go directly into the HIM program because I was staying at the same school. That started January of 2018. Typically, the program starts every fall; however, they allow some students to start one quarter behind. It was not until fall of 2018 that I completed the beginning classes for the course. Now I am currently completing my senior classes; I will be completed by fall 2019.

I am very proud to say that throughout my entire bachelor's program I have maintained a 4.0 grade point average. I really want people to know though that the last 4 years have not been easy for me; but they have come with so much reward that I want to go ahead and share with you guys a little bit about my journey as a student. I understand that this post is getting long so, check out my next post and I will talk to you about a lot of what has taken place with me over the past 4 years.

And…It Is What Is!