More Then I'd Hoped For

I finished up my college career this last Friday.  I was so afraid that the combo of Nathan being gone, the stress of the flood, and the pressure of my looming graduation, would result in me having to take at least one class over again.  I had gotten the grades back for all the classes I was afraid of passing, then the grades from the classes I needed extensions in.  All that was left was the random class I decided at the beginning of the term was something I didn't want to leave Oregon State University without learning about.  It was a class outside my normal realm of education, but I thought that it would help complete my agriculture experience.  Even though I knew that this class was going to make me work and that the classes in the crop and soil science department were hard core, I really wanted to learn about crop production.  I loved learning about crop rotations, how different the management is for each crop and how farmers have been able to become so much more efficient and sustainable in the last 20 years.  (This video is a fun way to see how brilliant our farmers are!)

But, I wasn't going to be battling senioritus like I thought I was, to get a good grade in this class.  I got something much bigger.  I went into that final having studied as much as I could, considering what was sucking away all my time (er-cough-flood-eck-hem).  I was not nearly so confident on that final as I was on the midterm and that freaked me out.  I need to know that I have all the material down forwards and backwards, otherwise, my confidence goes down the drain and my test scores drop.  When I turned in my test, I knew that I was unsure about some of the answers... like, how I couldn't remember the latin name for a potato to save my life, so I made something up... something that I know hardly resembled what it should have been, but I couldn't figure out what it was suppose to be.  I could remember that in Europe, they call alfalfa, lucerne, but I could not remember the name for a potato! Urg!

This was the test that I was most worried about and it was the last grade that I got back.  I have been so anxious to see if this class was going to stand in-between me and graduation.  All I needed was to do score well enough to get a C.  C's get degrees and that's all I really want.  Just a degree please.  When I logged on today to see my final scores... there it was, Intro to Crop Production, on the left hand side of the screen.  I squinted my eyes and shrinked away from my computer as I slowly scanned across the screen to see the letter grade that was sitting next to it.  I kept saying in my head, "please be a C, please be a C, please let me pass." And this is what I saw:

Not a C but a B-!  Oh my!  I did it!  Not only did I do it, but I did better than it!  I didn't have a single C in the whole bunch!  I felt like an over achiever or something!  What was I so worried about?  Of course I didn't have to worry about failing.  I work hard.  Silly me.

I've got to say that if I was going to give anyone advise when starting their college career, it would be to work extra hard at the beginning of your classes so that when the end comes and it's time to turn in those term papers and take those finals, you've pretty much got it in the bag.  Going into that last week made me so glad that I didn't slack off during the term.  I had all A's and B's in my classes and I was sure that my finals would bring those down with all the drama that had happened --- and they did, but not by much.  I am so HAPPY!  I did it.

I am a college graduate.