School... Because It's Just That Exciting!

Most of you probably don't know anything about my education, unless you've been creeping! So here is the complicated mess that it is.

I graduated high school having completed 12 hours of college credit plus 3 credit hours from taking an AP class. I went off to college to study political science, but after the death of my papa only two months into the first semester, I withdrew from school so that I would not mess up my GPA. So instead of graduating a semester early, I would be graduating on time. The next semester was great. That's when I decided I wanted to major in international business, and they didn't offer that major.

I continued taking classes there over the summer and at two community colleges to get the credits I needed to transfer to the new, private and expensive college. In the fall of 2007, I began my online studies at the new college as well as taking courses at a community college (it was a lot cheaper!).

In the summer of 2009, I started taking classes at another community college because I wanted to get a degree in medical transcription as a backup plan to studying international business. I type really fast (and with accuracy) and I seem to have a knack for etymology (shout out to my high school etymology teacher!), so medical transcription just made sense. At some point in 2010, I stopped taking classes at the expensive college because I didn't have the money to pay for it. And I could get a grant at the community college that more than paid for tuition and books.

Now fast-forward to this semester, spring of 2011! I will be finishing my medical transcription program at the end of the summer! And I couldn't be more excited! Somehow over the last few months, I kind of fell in love with the medical field. I have acquired so much more medical knowledge than I ever thought I would have. It really seems to come naturally. And it's just so much fun! I love the complicated terminology and figuring out exactly what a doctor's dictation means for the patient.

This is the part that very, very, very few people know about. I have applied to the nursing program for the fall semester. And I will also be applying to the respiratory therapy program this coming month for the fall semester. I feel led to go into one of those fields. The problem is that so many people apply to these programs, hundreds of people, that not everyone gets in. In fact, most people don't get in. For nursing, they accept 80 students overall. But that includes the second year students as well. So if they have 40 second year students, they will only accept 40 new students. I think there is a certain number of spots for respiratory therapy, but I'm not sure how many. I really believe it is 25, but I don't know for sure. They rank the applicants based on their GPAs, biology grades, the TEAS score (an aptitude test), and any previous medical degrees or certifications.

Anyway, so I'm hoping and praying that I get accepted into one of the programs! Will ya'll please pray with me over the next couple of months that God's will be done in this situation? To continue my current job, Matthew and I will have a long wait before I can finish school at the expensive college and before we can start a family (not that we're rushing). But to be able to have a degree in the medical field would open a lot of doors for us. Not only would the money help us out, but the flexible schedule these jobs have will be great for when we do have children to take care of. I will know in a couple weeks if I'm eligible to take the TEAS test. And then I will know in April if I was accepted into the programs! As fast as January has flown by, I know this won't be a long wait!