Tiny Lab

I love TEDTalks. You will probably see many videos on this blog from their site. A basic lab test that costs less than a penny each for areas where expensive equipment is not readily available.

Luck

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” —Seneca

A good friend of mine called tonight. She’s a Korean woman in her 50s, with two sons in their 20s. When she and her family came to the US, she knew little English and had little money. And while her sons were still in grade school, she enrolled into community college to become a dental hygienist and has now been working years in a job she loves. Ironically, her son is currently in a similar situation as I: going to community college to take prerequisite courses and on to a masters. Similarly, my own mother went back to school to get her Masters in Education in her 40s while working and raising the remaining two of four kids at home. When I think of all both have accomplished with limited resources but a determination and passion that helped get them through, it is no wonder they've both been an inspiration to me lately.

While catching my friend up to date on my progress, I expressed a frustration I continue to cross: There are so many steps towards my goal, I’m exhausted (yet elated) when I clear one. But it's short-lived, because just beyond, I see the next one. She laughed and knew exactly how I felt. It’s never quite “over”. The best way to not let it get you down, is to take it one step at a time.

And yet, I feel I’ve cleared so many complex obstacles that I should be further ahead than I am. In the beginning, I wanted to give up 100 times. It would have been the easy way. But I kept thinking about my current job that sucks any joy of life out of me. The idea of being in that same position when I’m 50 propelled me to keep going. Here’s just a list of what I did in the first 4 months (October-January) of preparation.

1. Wonder how to juggle work, classes in evening, and volunteer work. Almost sold my apt. and quit my job, to move back with parents and take all the classes I thought I’d need
2. Visit PA school program to find out what classes I needed (fortunately not as many as I thought)
3. Sent applications to hospital to volunteer for patient care. Why? I need 1000 hours (!!!!) of direct patient care
4. Worried when I didn’t hear back from hospitals
5. Signed up with NewYorkCares.org to do hospital volunteer work in case a hospital never replied
6. Elated when one loca hospital returned my application and called me in. Turned out to be better, since it's a convenient location
7. Got medicals done (TB blood test, MMR test)
8. 4 blood vials later, it was found I had no immunity to mumps and borderline for rubella.
9. Got an MMR booster shot
10. Started volunteer work at hospital
11. A month later, had to have more blood drawn to confirm the MMR vaccine took. Also had to take a drug test
12. Visited 1st Community College – found out I was too late to enroll for spring. Persisted and got admitted. 4 hrs running around
13. Visited 2nd Community College – more conveniently located, more available seats for same classes at CC1. 5 hours running around
14. Enrolled in English Comp I

So many times I wanted to quit. Every step was painful and contained several more little steps, never straight-forward. But surprisingly, the more I kept going, the easier it became. Things started to fall in place, wheels started to click, and I met people in the same situation who only inspired me more. All this preparation has brought me this far. And I feel lucky.

English Comp I

I'm really liking this class. It's strange that I didn't take an English Comp class in college. But when the PA program admissions looked at my transcript, they marked that English Comp was one class I needed. It was the only class I could get into by the time I applied to the city school, so rather than waste time, I took it.

I was immediately impressed by the professor. He engages the class and makes it interesting without being boring and just reciting a lesson. I have to say, it's not easy when teaching an evening class full of students reflecting the gamut in every demographic. He has freshmen who are probably 18, adults returning to school (me), and a wide range of accents to steer around. We are a real melting pot of NYC. Or more precisely perhaps, Brooklyn. It's amazing. Some students have such thick accents, it hurts my brain listening from one student to another at times. The effort of figuring out what they're saying can be difficult. But I noticed Mr. R is incredibly patient. Not to say he's a push over. He once admonished the class for paying more attention to the cell phone than to the class. But he treats everyone like an adult, without ever talking down to them. And rather than getting caught up on discipline and risking discouragement, you can sense his goal is to get the students interested in writing/reading.

I wasn't sure what to expect in the class. It started off pretty basic: how to write an effective sentence, verbs, objects, subjects. I started to wonder if I were in a college class or in 4th grade. However, I realized this was a good time to really pay attention and improve my writing skills. And I found out, writing is not easy! Not that it was ever easy for me. But to write well, is such an art. Almost weekly, we have a short essay due. The class is proving to be a great refresher for me. English class was one of those courses I never paid much attention to. But with this new focus of my new found goal, it's a real eye opener of how little I really absorbed in previous school. And suddenly, I wanted to take all my college courses over again and experiment how much better I could do in them if I had really wanted those classes, rather than going through the mundane motions of: this is college; declare a major, graduate in 4 years. I really enjoy just learning. Once I'm done with these prerequisite classes, I may decide to keep taking a class just for the fun of it. Crazy, huh?