S-C-H-O-O-L

I am a Ricks College non-grad. I went to Ricks for two years. I loved, loved, loved it. I, however, did not have a whole lot of direction in my mind as far as graduating or knowing what in the world I was doing. I signed up for classes and I went to classes and I got decent grades in my classes (mostly). However, after two years I was shy of meeting the criteria for graduation and I just left when everyone else was leaving. I have looked back on my decisions during that time with a lot of frustration and confusion. Why didn't I graduate?! What was I thinking?! It's always been a source of shame for me. I'm a really capable person who accomplishes a lot of things in life, but I've always felt a little "less-than" about not graduating.

I went home and worked for a while. I was kind of "waiting" for a missionary and for a while thought that marrying him would be my next big step. Then I decided to serve a mission (before he got home...not because it didn't work out, although it didn't work out either). Best year and a half of my life! I came home and went back to work. Then I almost moved to Provo, but didn't. I was really involved in my single's ward and dating and working for the next year. Then that fall (2004) I decided to enroll in some classes. I was super disappointed to find out that out of my 42 credits from Ricks only 16 would transfer. Lame. Just a week or so into school was fast Sunday. It was a normal fast Sunday and I didn't have anything particular in mind to fast about, but at the close of my fast I had a VERY strong impression that I needed to drop my classes. What?! I had no idea why and I struggled with it for a few days, but decided that I couldn't deny what I'd felt and I dropped the classes. About a week or two later I broke off a somewhat serious relationship. A few weeks after that I met Tyler and a few weeks after that I picked up and moved to Provo to be close to him (he was just a month shy of finishing his thesis for his masters degree, so he couldn't be the one to move) and he proposed the night after we moved my things to Orem. Heavenly Father knew what was coming...if I'd been in school I wouldn't have been able to move to Provo and have that very important time with Tyler before we were married 7 weeks later.

It's always been in the plans for me to go back to school. I want to finish my degree. My goal is to eventually get a masters degree and become a clinical social worker to work as a therapist for foster children...or some type of therapist. But there was the lameness with hardly any of my credits transferring and that has always frustrated me. So a year and a half ago I contacted BYU-Provo to see if a former Ricks student could do the online continuing education program. No such luck. HOWEVER, they told me that BYU-Idaho was working to get the same program off of the ground for former Ricks students. I put my name on the list and that was as far as things progressed for a while. Finally, in October of this year I received an e-mail saying that they were starting a pilot program in Winter 2009 and would be accepting 40 people to participate. I filled out my application, got my ecclesiastical endorsement (my Bishop joked with me about the importance of dressing modestly when I sit in front of the computer for my classes) and submitted everything just before Thanksgiving. Well...I was accepted and I start in February!!! I know that it is going to take me a long time to finish, but I am just so excited about being back in school. I am anxious for that type of learning environment and I am thrilled to be starting on a goal that I've had for quite some time. So even though my heart belongs to Ricks, my money will now go to BYU-Idaho.