AAH!!!!

Today I had a terrifying moment where I didn't think I was going to be able to graduate in July of 2012 as planned.

Basically, to make a long story short, I went and talked to the registrar today and discovered that, although the course planning guide I received indicates that only 2 education classes are required for my degree, I actually need 3...and, because so few people are in my degree program at all, there wasn't an additional course for me to take next year.  Essentially, this would mean that I'd have to stick around in Dallas for an entire extra semester for one class; this also had ramifications of a semester without government aid, and the need to take out an additional half-year on my apartment lease or else be stuck in Dallas for 8 months following graduation.  Also, a byproduct of this conversation was that I found out that I had been assigned the wrong advisor at the beginning of the year - they placed me with the Urban Ministries advisor instead of the Christian Education one.  Nice job there, SMU.

And so, in all these revelations, I went on with my natural response to stress as of late: I started crying.  Right there in the registrar's office.

Lovely.

Thankfully, by the grace of God, the woman who is SUPPOSED to be my advisor (and who is currently my professor) wandered by in the hallway at precisely that moment, and came in and joined the conversation (attempting to comfort me in the meantime with many "There there"s and the like).  Suddenly, after a good deal of deliberation, I managed to pull myself together enough to have a coherent thought, and asked if I could do an independent study to complete that requirement.  This idea was received well by my (new) advisor and the registrar, and so that is now the plan.  I will do an independent study in the spring of 2012, and therefore still be able to graduate by August of 2012.

So all's well that ends well, right?

I'm telling you though, I'm sick of this degree program smacking me in the face.  I mean yes, I'm one of the 5% minority of people that is in the CMM program, but that doesn't mean that we don't need courses too.  I'm a bit bitter.

Also, even though I know that everything's fine now, I still FEEL like it isn't fine.  I guess I'll feel better after course registration, and once I figure out the details of this independent study thing.  Baaaaaaaah.  Humbug.

What's worse is that it's the all-too-often moments like these that make me wish I'd gone to Asbury instead...that I'd gotten my application in sooner and gotten a scholarship there instead (which I'm very confident I could have done).  And I'm QUITE tired of regretting that.

OK, rant over.  Thanks for listening.