I’ll start with the part of this whole story I end up having to explain to people the most first. I dropped out of both high school and college when I was 17. You see, I was in some kind of “smart kids’ program” where you went to college instead of high school for dual credit. However, a class lasting a quarter in college counted for an entire year in high school. I took advantage of this to graduate in March rather than June. My birthday is in May and I left home the day I turned 18 for various reasons. If I go into discussing these reasons, it’s a whole new messy tangent in this story that really has nothing to do with anything, so just take it as it is. I stopped going to my one remaining class in the spring quarter sometime in April. Therefore, I dropped out of college at 17. I dropped out of high school at 17. But I still graduated. Now you know.
Earlier this year I decided to go back to college. In essence, I felt like I wasn’t really doing too much with this whole “life” thing and that I needed to get out of the house more in ways that aren’t elaborate excuses for getting shitfaced. Plus, I have vague ambitions to get a radio show on WCSB and subject everyone to my superior taste in music, but I’m trying not to put the cart before the horse on that one. Conveniently, having turned 24 this year, I can now clean up on the whole financial aid tip.
Thus, I applied to Cleveland State University. I considered going to Tri-C, but I would actually have less than a year of classes I could take there, plus there’s no radio station shenanigans. I got accepted. I applied for financial aid. I went to new student orientation. I sat around. I got kind of nervous. I eventually got on the Rapid and went downtown last Tuesday and found my class. I stopped being nervous.
I seem to have lucked out and got a professor who is both competent and has a sense of humor. If things go well, I might actually try to get her for the next math course I have to take. I’m already getting over my tendency to get shit-scared as soon as I see “x” in an equation and figuring out things on my own from chapters we haven’t even covered yet, which I would say is a good sign. A lot of my friends would say I shouldn’t be surprised by the ease of Math 087, but I’ve never been real strong with math. Well, not so much math as algebra. But I’ve probably gained some abstract thinking skills over the 10 years since Algebra I and II. At least I’d like to think so.
I was even excited to do my first homework assignment. I think I might end up getting a big hard-on for math. There’s probably some sort of joke here about penises and the whole “girls can’t do math” thing, but I’ll let you make that one up for yourself.
I’ve actually ran into a couple of friends who I don’t see enough of on my two trips downtown too, which was pleasant.
So that’s me and school. I just have the one class, Tuesdays and Thursdays at CSU. Now you can stalk me. Or you can hang out at the bus stop with me after class and help me chainsmoke and curse, just like in high school.