Odds and ends

The days are blurs. Anatomy is in full force. Biology is in full force. The children are arguing and of course only minimally helpful and life is cruising along. My first Anatomy test was this past Wednesday. As the grade I get in Anatomy and Physiology is a huge determining factor of whether or not I am accepted into Harper's nursing program, there was absolutely not one shred of pressure to do well on the test. As it was the first test, I didn't have a clue what I should study and my teachers study guide pretty much indicated every chart, diagram, clinical view and sentence as important. I spent 3 days immersed in the text book, memorizing charts, processes, diagrams, and terminology. One of my biggest fears as I read was that all this work that I was doing would lead to mediocre results. I experienced that this year with my full time job when I spent 12, 13, 14 hours doing work and received a less than stellar review. I don't like to waste time anymore. My tummy was in knots when I entered the auditorium. My classmates were cramming last minute facts into their head. I opted not to. I pulled out my pencil with a nice eraser and sat there and waited. I reminded myself I studied hard. I reminded myself to read every question thoroughly and think things through as I was queen of the stupid mistake in CNA class. I gave myself a little..."you can do this" pep talk. 50 questions, all multiple choice. After I answered the first 10 I thought to myself "Hmmm" this isn't too hard. When I turned in the test, I was fairly confidant that I did fairly well. There were a few questions that I had to think about and as usual got "sternum" and "scapula" mixed up in my brain. I do not know why I do that. But don't worry. If I ever have to give anyone CPR, I won't be pumping on their shoulder blade. Since all of the tests are graded via Scantron, my teacher had everything graded by the time I had Lab and informed everyone the average grade was a 68%. EEEEKKK... He called each of us up individually to get our test grades. I got a 94%. WOOHOO!!! But my work is hardly done. I am immersed in the book studying the bones of the Axial skeleton and HOLY MOSES is it a LOT OF BONES!

On each of our tables in Wednesdays lab, was a box of skulls. No, they weren't the plastic kind. They were real human skulls. I had often wondered how I would handle working with a former human in a classroom setting. My job was to find the bones listed on my lab sheet on the real human skull which I did without spending much time wondering who these 5 human skulls belonged to and what kind of life they led. If I did that, I might not have gotten through the lab.

Kris and Cass brought their grades home. Cass did fairly well for her first Semester in high school. I remember completely bombing out my first semester in high school. New atmosphere. Harder material. More drama. Didn't really know how to study. Despite that, Cass pulled a 3.0. Kris, well, his lack of motivation once again shined through in his grades. He received C's on all his finals after studying maybe 30 minutes. Imagine what he could have done if he had actually studied longer or actually cared enough to try and get higher than the bare minimum. Kris is a bare minimum kid. He does just enough to get by and thinks that is all it's going to take for success. In April, my number one son will take his ACT. I bought software so that he can learn words, practice Math, practice reading and downloaded it to his computer. In April of last year, he took an ACT practice test and got a 25. Because of this, he decided that he does not have to study because DePaul University, where he would like to finish his undergraduate, requires a 22 minimum score on the ACT. Since he scored a 25 on a practice test, he feels that satisfies the requirement. Now he spends his days playing Cake Mania on WII. OH MY LORD..WHAT DID I DO WRONG???

Back to the books. Maybe if they see me study, they'll be motivated to study. RIGHT!!