Fall Break Highlights!

I had a wonderful fall break. I really did. However, it amazes me how fast four days go by, because it seemed like a blur. Regardless, I will tell you about some of my adventures I went on over break!

Thursday began with Andy coming over to my house for the day. We had a great day together, just him, me, and my mom. I think he enjoyed having all of the attention on him for a while. Emily and Cole came by around lunch time, much to Andy's pleasure. I should mention that Andrew is still quite fond of Cole. He goes back and forth on calling him his "little cutie pie" or "Coley Platypus". (I think Phineas & Ferb has a lot to do with the last one, but we still haven't figured out why he calls him that. It is incredibly cute, if you ask me.) Speaking of Cole, here's an adorable picture I took of him when I picked him up from the babysitter the other day!

At the end of the day, Cody and Kyle came off of the bus, and joined in the fun! Good times!

Friday was the highlight of break: my long-awaited tour of OSU!!! We headed down to Stillwater bright and early, and we got settled in. We started out in the Seretean Center (Yes, that's where we played for state band, PiHi people.), where they showed a promotional video that generally told us that our wildest dreams would come true if we attended their college. (It was kinda cheesy, if you asked me, but it was fine.) I felt a little bit awkward going on a tour as a transfer student, because literally everyone else there was still in high school. The tour itself was nice and my tour guide was very excited about everything, but I really didn't get much useful information out of the tour. I did, however, get a picture in front of the library fountain, which was dyed orange for homecoming week!

Not the best picture in the world, but it was also chilly and the wind was literally blowing 40 mph, so you can't have too high of expectations! I came to the conclusion that it should be virtually impossible to be out of shape on that campus, because I felt like we walked at least two or three miles going everywhere on campus. (I was feeling the burn for sure.) After the tour, my parents and I caught a quick lunch at the Union, which had about eight different restaurants in it. It was very busy and somewhat overstimulating. Also, the guy taking our order at Chik-Fil-A was virtually impossible to understand. After lunch, I made a quick visit to the scholarship office to talk to someone about possibilities on that avenue. That was almost a waste of time, because the guy nicely, but somewhat condescendingly, showed me how to go on their website and see what scholarships I was eligible for. (Which I have already seen at least twice when I was doing some research on the matter.) That was all I got from that office, so I left and caught up with my parents, who were perusing the apparel store. They literally have everything OSU imaginable. T-shirts, sweaters, cardigans, jeans, dresses, baby clothes, t-shirts, athletic shorts, cowboy boots, EVERYTHING! I was in love...just saying! As we were leaving, though, my dad accidentally opened one of the emergency exit doors and set off the alarm...oops! Really, though, it looked like a normal exit, and I probably would've done the same thing. 

I decided that it would be advantageous to schedule an appointment with an advisor, and I can't begin to explain how happy I am that I did. I will preface this by saying that I got more useful information out of that than I did during the entire tour. Since there were six of us visiting with the College of Education (which ironically isn't just for teachers...it also includes aviation administration, athletic training, and a couple of other things that currently escape me.), the lady had one general session with all of us. I enjoyed talking to this lady, as she had a wealth of knowledge about the college, and their expectations. Furthermore, she was straightforward in the information she gave us, which I really appreciated. I received some good news in the fact that I should be guaranteed a job upon my graduation, and most of my math education classes could have only seven students and a professor, which is even better!!! Also, I found out that the majority of their divisional scholarships go to the students in the upper-division classes, and there is a lot of money that goes to that department, so that's even better! :) 

We were given packets that included a degree sheet and a progression of classes, and I noticed that it mentioned something about me having to take the OGET (OK General Education Test) at the end of this school year. That was news to me, so I decided to ask a few questions about that at the end of the session. I was directed to one of the actual advisors, so I trotted over to try to talk with her before it was too late. (It was already 3:00 on a Friday afternoon, so I was cutting it close.) As luck would have it, she happened to be in her office, and had time to talk with me. When we began talking, she was very nice (as was everyone else at the university), but was also somewhat condescending. I felt like she wasn't really hearing what I was saying at first, and was just trying to shuffle me out of her office. I explained who I was and what I was hoping to accomplish at OSU. She basically told me that I would have to stay an extra semester or maybe even year to finish my degree, only because she didn't think I could handle taking all of the math classes that I  was required to take. She also thought that I would have to take Calc III. 

Let me pause the story right here, because that was a battle point for me. You see, here at NOC, Calc I & II are offered as two five-hour courses, which adds up to 10 hours of Calculus studies. At OSU, it is offered as Calc I, II, & III, in a 4-3-3 sequence, which also adds up to 10 hours of Calc studies. NOC's sequence is more rigorous (as you might have guessed from all of my previous posts of how intensive it is) than OSU's actually is. And, as you may have guessed, our Calc rotation overlaps Calc III, which means that when we transfer, we bypass Calc III. So, her statement about me having to take it naturally ticked me off a little bit.

After I tried to briefly explain this, she politely told me that I even if we overlapped, it still might not be good enough because it was more "rigorous" there. (Imagine a condescending tone to that statement, though.) I tried explaining once again how things were here, and I even pulled out my transcript to show her my grades in all of my math classes. She glanced at it, not even long enough to get anything out of it, if you asked me. Finally, she asked me what my actual number grade was in Calc I and what my current number grade is in Calc II. I explained that I got a 97 in Calc I, and I currently have a very high A in Calc II. And I explained that it was taught via ITV, which meant that I virtually taught myself everything I know about Calculus. That was the point when the light turned on, and she started talking to me like I was a real person, who she wanted to talk to. That was also the point when she typed our course transfer number into her computer, and she told me that, lo and behold, I should be able to bypass Calc III, no problem. Hmm. Then she proceeded to tell me that I might only have to stay an extra semester, only because of student teaching, and maybe not even that, if I was willing to do a little bit of summer work. I figured that would be the point to mention my experience in tutoring and working for a math professor, which she really lit up about. She proceeded to tell me that I should be eligible for some divisional grant money, multiple scholarships, and a position at their tutoring center, not to mention a double-major if I took one specific math class I already will have to take. She told me that I would have no problem with the OGET (it's like the ACT, so they say), and I can begin observations next fall. Wow! It's amazing how that situation turned around, but I am thankful it did. By the time I left her office, she told me that she would be sad if she didn't see me again in the spring to enroll there. For the record, no, I don't hold any of her comments against her, because I see where she was coming from, but I am glad that she took the time to actually get to know me a little bit more.

What I didn't realize though, was that while I was making some progress with an advisor, my parents were in the lobby inadvertently making some connections of their own. I guess, while they were waiting for me, a man sat down in the lobby and asked them a couple of questions. After they talked for a bit, he proceeded to introduce himself as none other than Wes Watkins. (You Okies probably recognize the name, otherwise, look him up on Wikipedia, you'll be surprised!) After they talked some more, his wife, Lou, came and sat next to my parents and talked some more. She asked my parents about their lives, their other children, me, etc, which was about when I walked out of the office. My mom told me to sit down, which was surprising, because they were chomping at the bit to leave before I went to talk to the advisor. I had a nice conversation with Lou and Wes, although I really had no idea who they were. They were incredibly nice people, who were just as common as anyone else. As irony would have it, I actually know their daughter-in-law, who is the PLC sponsor for Stillwater. Strange how these things work out, isn't it? We made that connection after talking for a while. The more amazing part of our exchange with the Watkins family was the fact that I met some big names. Lou purposely introduced me both the assistant dean and the dean of the college of education. Holy Cow! (I should add that I didn't ask to be introduced; that was literally something she did when they happened to walk by, so it was even more special to me!) Before I left, she hugged me, and gave me her email and cell phone number to use in case I ran into any issues or needed any additional assistance in my application process. As my parents and I left the college of education, they asked if I knew who Lou & Wes actually were. I had no idea, but I just knew that they were nice people who happened to know lots of administration. That was when they explained that Wes was a former Congressman, and that Lou was on the  Board of Regents for the college, and had her master's in education. Say what?! Talk about a surprise, and feeling incredibly humbled by that whole exchange! 

After starting out the day feeling pretty tentative about OSU, I think it is almost a dead lock that I will be going there next year. They literally rolled out the "orange" carpet for me, and made me feel at home. (I really did feel that way, despite how cynical I may have sounded earlier in the post.) The campus is big, but it's not really as big as one would think. I loved it, and I think that I could be very happy there! 

So, yes, that is how the majority of my fall break went, and I feel incredibly blessed to have experienced everything that I did on Friday! Call it fate, divine intervention, whatever you want, but it was all literally being in the right place at the right time, and I'm okay with that! As one of my friends always says, there are no small decisions in life, and nothing is a coincidence. I am a true believer in that now, and I am ready to begin the next step in my life!