This past week I learned a lesson in the power of patience, perseverance, time management and a lot of faith.
I created this blog with the theme of there is enough time. I often hear people say," I didn't have time." "There isn't enough time." "There wasn't enough time." "I'm never on time."
The real fact of the matter is there is enough time. I've even often found myself saying,"I just don't have the time." This is usually my response to not being able to go running as much as I'd like because I'm forced to choose to work as much as I do. This last week I taught myself a serious lesson in time management.
I decided to pursue trying to obtain my certification as an EMT (emergency medical technician). This started with submitting an application to the local college where I wanted to receive the training. The next step was submitting an application for financial aid. This is where the good news started rolling in. I was so lucky to work for a non-profit organization in 2007 where well I might as well have made no profit. My tax filing was so meager I was able to qualify for a fee waiver for admission along with qualifying for some type of grant.
Registration came and when it was finally my day and time to register I happened to be 24th on the waiting list for the classes. These classes included the pre-academy 3 night class and the 16 week academy class. The cpr 8 hour class I was only 5th on the waiting list.
Now came the sweat, tears, 800 miles on my car, stress and a headache. Last Tuesday night the trek began. I've been in Santa Barbara the last 3 weeks working for my previous employer of 7 years ago as a nanny. This is the part where I catch myself saying,"my how time flies." They were 2 and 0 when I first started taking care of them 12 years ago. So first I had to assure the boys had a responsible adult looking after them and seeing they got their studies done while I went and tried to pursue my future studies. I arrived to the first pre-academy class 15 minutes late only to have the professor come outside the classroom to talk to me and tell me he had already called roll and the waiting list. There I was between a rock and a hard place. I didn't want to have to wait until next semester to try to get in again so I was determined not to accept the answer of just not enough room in the class. I then asked the teacher if I could return the following night to see if anyone had become uniterested after learning what the program consisted of on the first night. The teacher's response was if you show up tomorrow and there is a seat I will allow you to be added to the roster. I walked away with a glimmer of hope and a lot of faith knowing full well I was going to have to trust my own mantra I've repeated many times which is things don't always work out the way we want them to, but they always turn out the way they need to and I would trust that if it was meant to be it would just work out.
Wednesday evening comes and I again arrange for the boys to be watched by a responsible adult. I travel the hour and 15 minutes north to try to once again get into the class. The class was 10 minutes from starting and the professor pulls me into his office and informs me he has never in all his years of teaching allowed a student to be added to the roster on the second night of class and he feels inclined to make an exception for me. We then enter the class room and there is just one empty seat. As I listened to the lecture Wednesday nigh I had a great feeling that this really was meant to be. At the end of class the professor informs me I have a questionairre to answer, an autobiography to write, two chapters to study, two exams to take on the chapters, a 20 page policy and procedure manual to read and a test to take on it with no score less than 100% being accepted and a vocab quiz to study for that would be given in Friday night's class. This was all to be completed after I submitted a document to admissions and he was able to enter me into the computer the following day which was Thursday.
Thursday morning I take both boys to school and put the oh so lovely smelling wet dog in my car and make the drive back to the school in a rain storm with mudslides on the freeway to submit the paperwork to admissions that the professor had signed. At this time I am informed I have missed the deadline and the professor should have been made aware of this. I am told I will need to speak to the director of admissions and I wait two hours to speak to her while she is in a meeting. I speak to the director of admissions and she informs me she will be speaking to my professor. A couple hours later I receive an email from my professor stating that despite our best efforts admin has chosen to deny our request to add me to the class. I then submit an email to the director stating my reasons for desiring to be admitted as well as stating the various sacrifices I had made in the days preceding submitting the necessary form. At 5:30 pm I received a phone call from the admission director stating she had added me to the class. I returned her call to say thank you and her response was you have been given a gift now take it and run with it. I suppose I should have told her how much I love running, but I knew a simple thank you very much for your time would have to suffice at the moment after all I believe I was her last call of the work day and words couldn't have done justice to my gratitude.
However, the story doesn't end there at this point the professor is still under the impression I have not been added to the class so I haven't been placed in the computer system so I am unable to complete my assignments. Friday morning 10:00 am the adventure begins. I am in the computer finally along with an email from the professor stating his expectations as once outlined to me in the Wednesday evening class. Lucky for me I had done my chapter reading so I was prepared to take the two exams and was able to score above 80% on each one. I was also able to complete the 20 pages of reading as well as the questionairre and the autobiography was so easily completed as I had just done one last year and was fortunate to locate a copy on my computer so I just needed to do some rewriting and fine tuning. I then scored the 100% that was expected, but I must be honest the first try I did miss one question.
I traveled to class once again Friday night after arranging for the boys to spend the night at friend's houses. I didn't score as well as I would have liked on my vocab quiz but I know how to be better prepared next time and hopefully will have more than a few hours time to prepare for it. As this was only a 3 day class I'm very satisfied with the results of a measly A-.
Okay the fun part of it all was being fitted for the academy uniform. I haven't worn a uniform in two years.
And on to the cpr training. I completed it just a couple of hours ago after attending it all day. I am now certified as a healthcare professional in cpr. This will be great for my current employment as well as it is also valid for 2 years and will replace my previous one year certification that I recently received last year.
Some how, some way there was always just enough time to do it all.
And one of my biggest inspirations in life said to me tonight that just goes to show a little determination pays off.
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