It's A Go

Sitting here in my mismatched green socks, pink polka-dot pajamas, and Logan's ΑΣΦ zippy, bun on my head with mascara running down my face. I promise this is a good thing. After a long, hard, fought battle with universities and financial aid... I think I won.

Today I had an academic advising appointment with a graduate student basically doing what I want to do- Psych undergrad, academic advising masters certificate, and higher ed masters degree. He was very enthused when we started talking. Then he told me I need to work in the advising office. Then he gave me high recommendations. Then he introduced me to some other advisor. Then she told me to email her my resume. So yeah. It escalated quickly.

I went to financial aid. Financial aid does not cover everything. However, I am confident that this first year will be handled well. I got it all planned out, financial-wise.

About an hour ago, I did something that was starting to feel like something that was never going to happen. I registered for Fall classes at a university level. I have sent in my housing application. I have paid for my housing application. I am excited. I am going in blind for roommates... We will see how this goes.

I guess I will finally admit this to the world too... I am very interested in Greek life... Surprise?

Here is the schedule!!

Where I'm At Right Now In Reguards to Schooling in the Fall...

I have 2-3 options.

Option One: Go to Western. I have applied. I haven't gotten anything back yet, though. They have my financial aid ready, but I can't see it till I get accepted. I missed the scholarship deadline so that stinks because according to my advisor at KCC, I would have gotten around $7,000 automatically. So I am really waiting to hear from them to make a final decision.

Option Two: Go to Eastern. I loved Eastern. To read more about my feels toward Eastern, read my previous blog post. I have been accepted and I have gotten my financial aid package. Again, I missed the scholarship deadline. The package was less than stellar.

Option Three: Stay at KCC. This has a lot of positives and two really huge negatives. If I stayed at KCC the classes are really cheap and they transfer. I can get a lot of general education out of the way. I would transfer in as a junior. I could apply to other universities earlier and get the scholarships and better financial aid. However, this would not be good for my sanity. I cannot be a 21 year old living in my folks house. I can't. I can't afford to move out and save for college AND pay my collections agency. That is one issue. The other is that I need to have friends again. I swear this lack of social life and friends has been destroying me internally. It is crazy how loneliness can get so dark.

So I am ready to apply to Eastern. I am ready to send in my housing app. I am just waiting on Western to get back to me. If Western has a better financial aid package waiting for me, which I doubt, I will go there. I can't stay at KCC.

Visiting Eastern Michigan University

So we get to the welcome center at 1:45. The room is packed with people. I fill out this sheet of paper that has my information on it. One by one an advisor talks one on one with a visitor. While I wait I notice they break the tours into smaller groups- like, five people. I got a free shirt. So there are two of us left in this room. Lets call the other girl Tabby. Tabby talked to an advisor already. Finally I get called aside and I get some information (that I already got off the internet) about my two majors. The admissions advisor also tells me that I got accepted! Yay! So instantly I ask where financial aid is and if I can go talk to them. She tells me and I end up running by there after the tour. So Tabby and I are the only two people in the tour group.

Our tour guide, lets call her Neem, was very bubbly. She was a sophomore and majors in speech pathology. So we start touring campus and it is actually pretty small. This made me very happy. I like small campuses. It isn't necessarily a "pretty" campus but I love the historical buildings. The honors college is actually the oldest building on campus and it looks amazing. There was also a building on campus that has burned down twice and they rebuilt it. I guess it was because of the chemistry department. Now the chemistry department is in the $90 billion dollar building for science. I also will be taking most of my classes in here because the building also houses psychology. Unfortunately this building is very far away from the foreign language building, where my minor is housed. I am not sure where history is taught. But hopefully I'll find out.

The dorms. Oh the dorms. The freshmen dorms are pretty much exactly like Northern only a little newer looking. The transfer towers are tiny little things. So when I applied for dorms, I actually applied for one on campus dorm that is for transfers and upper classmen but it isn't a tower. And my second and third choice was an apartment that is about a mile away.

At the end of the tour we ended up back where we started, shocker, right? I went to the mini financial aid desk and the worst part of the visit occurred. This financial aid lady told me that my EFC jumped a little over $3000 to about $7,800. It was $4,651. This jump made me ineligible for the pell grant. Needless to say, I was devastated. We filled out some extra documents and then we went to Ikea.

Many hours later after Ikea and getting dinner in Jackson, we were home. In the mail was a letter from Eastern. Hmm. I open it and it is my financial aid package! In my financial aid package was an EFC of $4,651 and a pell grant!! So then I was thinking someone has to be wrong. So I log onto myemich account to see what it says on there. The award letter I got and the myemich account had the same things listed. So I think the woman was wrong. Or whatever she was looking at was wrong. I am actually going back on Thursday to talk to an advisor and to talk with financial aid again.

So I love Eastern. And I am totally okay with being an Eagle. No matter what I was going to end up there. I almost went there instead of KCC anyways. EMU is also the only university around here that offered the masters certificate of academic advising! It was bound to happen. And my cardiologist will love that I will only be a few minutes away.

I'm Really Bad at It

The only way someone can improve themselves is to know what they either aren't good at or what they are insecure about. I'm not talking about just physical insecurities either. I am concerned about this post because I don't want it to be a "complainy" or a "pity party" post. I don't intend it to sound like either of those. So here goes, the things I need to improve on.

1. Medication. If you know me at all, you know I am really bad at taking medication. It isn't that I am lazy. It isn't that I want to die. The issue I think, stems from when I was younger, around 10, and my cardiologist at the time had me extremely over-medicated. I don't want to say it was traumatizing, but it definitely influenced the way I feel about medication. I am trying to think of a reward system for myself that will motivate me to take it more, and eventually every night. One idea I have is that if I take it all week, I can buy myself a candy bar (dark chocolate because it is heart healthy). And that will just be once a week.

2. Portion Control. I love food. Who doesn't? The issue is that I don't like eating. I know, confusing. The actual act of eating is what I don't like. I am not too sure where this comes from. I'm not talking about eating disorder status though! No need to worry about that. So because of this, I only eat once, maybe twice a day. And when I do, I eat a lot all at once. So what I am trying to work on is getting better portioned separate meals a day.

3. Procrastination. I have had a heart monitor that I'm supposed to wear for 30 days sitting in my room in a box. It has been 2 weeks since my appointment as of Wednesday. I really just need to get my s#!% together. Also, lately with homework, I am not doing it when I could be. But that is a lazy "I am ready for Spring Break" attitude that I need to kick. Once I am back from Spring break, it should go away.

4. Eggs. I tend to put them all in one basket. I mean, I paid my $300 acceptance fee to Penn State before I even knew what my financial aid package was. I don't know why I do this kind of stuff. Maybe there is too much faith or something going on. I do know I am going to be working on looking at things with a critical eye now. I can't just jump for joy when good things happen. I need to analyze what is going on before I make big decisions.

5. Money. On one hand I am really proud of myself when it comes to money, but on the other, I know I need to be more organized and be more aware of how much I have to spend on "fun" before I go crazy. With these new monthly payments for NMU and I took on my own phone bill, I need to think about where which parts of my pay check should go.

So yeah. In order to better yourself, know yourself.