Finals...almost done!

Finals weeks is coming to an end...quickly I might add.  Tomorrow I take my last final.  I can't believe that the semester flew by this quick.  I'm not complaining by all means, let these next two and half years fly by too!  I'm happy to say I've done exceptionally well this whole semester.  I hope that I can keep this same momentum the rest of my time here at UNCP.  I'm thinking my final grades will either be straight A's or all A's and one B.  I will give an update as soon as the grades are out.

Today has been a good day for me.  This whole weeks has been pretty good actually.  I think the only day I stressed a lot was yesterday.  I get very emotional when I let my mind think too much on things I can't really change.  On top of that, I was bidding farewell to Calculus last night so I spend most of the day studying for the final.  I'm happy to announce that I got a B on the final and an overall A in the class.  Hard work and studying definitely paid off.

Sometimes I think about how unperfect I am as a human being.  It really bothers me at times.  There are times where I wish I could be a better daughter, sister, wife....a better student, teacher, friend...a better athlete as well!  But no one is perfect they say...and the more I think about myself, that saying couldn't be anything but true when it comes to me!  Self-evaluation....I do this constantly throughout the day trying to figure what I can do to better myself...physically, mentally, spiritually.  And of course a list as long as California comes to mind.  I wish the thinking part was as easy as the doing part.

Wish me luck on my last exam!

Scholarship Nominee!

So this week started off bad but it is definitely coming to a great end!  On Monday morning during our formation after PT, one of the Senior Military Instructors from Campbell Battalion came to talk to us about the downsizing that the Army is doing.  Campbell Battalion has been producing more officers than actually needed in the Army so they wanted to let us know that the contracts were going to be limited.  On Tuesday, our Captain came to brief the MSII class about the same thing except he had even more bad news.  Campbell Battalion was only going to contract 43 MSII cadets (class of 2014).  Let me explain this a little further...Campbell Battalion is made of four companies at four universities in this area: Campbell University, Fayetteville State University, Methodist University, and lastly University of North Carolina at Pembroke.  Our Battalion has to be at least 300 hundred strong and just at UNCP we have 24 MSIIs and we are one of smaller companies in our battalion.  This had me pretty nervous because liked I've said many times before, this is my dream.  I've planned the next three years of my life around this and now I was being told my chances were going to be slim to none.  About 15 of those 43 will be green-to-gold cadets (active duty enlisted transferring to become officers).  We have no say in how many we will actually get and there really isn't a limit.  Maybe another 10-14 who are on scholarship.  So for us who aren't contracted it's like having 40-50 dogs fighting for the same bone!  I was pretty depressed for most of this week.......UNTIL TODAY.

Today I came into the ROTC house to work on some homework for another class and our Msgt came up to me about the APFT coming up.  He asked if it was possible to make it to the APFT they were holding at Fort Bragg for the contracted cadets.  He told me that he knows I'm not contracted yet but since I have my packet already submitted he wanted me to take it with them anyways.  That was a pick-me-up!  About an hour later, our Captian comes into the house and asks to see me.  I was pretty nervous since he's been having people come see him about contracting and letting people know whether they might be able to contract or not.  I was pretty nervous I'm not gonna lie.  As I'm standing at parade rest he tells me "Here's the deal Gilfranzo" (Yes that's how he says my name lol) "There's only one MSII scholarship they are giving out this year and you've been nominated for it. You're competing against one girl from FSU and she's high speed like you.  So you better be at the APFT at Fort Bragg and score a frikin 300 on that PT test you hear me!"  I felt my body go numb....a scholarship!  I was freaking out about not getting contracted and now I'm up for a scholarship!!!!  I want to hug the crap out of him LOL.  I've never felt so nervous and so proud at the same time!

So for the next week and half I will be training hardcore for this PT test.  I need to be in the best shape of my life and run the fastest I've ever ran in my life if I want this scholarship.  Which I do!  I want it more than anything else!  I really do hope I get this, it would seriously make my year official. So I'm asking ALL my friends and family to keep me in your prayers while I train hard for this and the pray REALLY hard for me at 0600 on the 16th of November LOL.  Tomorrow is Friday! Yay!  Have a great weekend ya'll. =)

High speed short girl in the middle?  Yeah that's me lol

Army vs. Air Force

My first full week of school is over and I have to be honest, it sure has taken a toll on me!  Between classes and my ROTC schedule I am crazy busy.  I get up at 4 every morning and have barely enough energy to do my wifely duties around the house before climbing into bed around 8:30-9 exhausting.  I had a headache three days in a row and I do believe it's because of how my daily routine has changed so drastically.  Nevertheless, I'm extremely happy about the change.  My life is back on the move again, doing bigger and better things than before.

My classes have gotten off on a great start.  I have some programming homework to finish today but other than that, I'm scotch free the rest of the weekend which means...time to catch up on cleaning this house!  (Which I've already started on early this morning lol)  ROTC has been going great too.  I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep up in PT but I've been doing better than I expected.  I love the fact that I'm back to being active mentally and physically.  I believe both of these are needed in order to maintain a balanced life.  PT is really a love/hate relationship.  I hate waking up so early and working out beyond exhaustion but after it's all said and done I feel awesome and proud of myself.  Yesterday we did a  company run around the school about 2.5 miles total.  Mind you, this is my first "long" run in over three years.  Believe or not I didn't fall out and I was actually ahead of the company since I was doing road guard duty.  Now I'm not gonna lie, my lungs were on the floor by the end of the run but the important thing is I didn't give up.  =)

This makes me feel pretty confident because Monday we have our APFD which pretty much means practice PT test.  I know I'm not at the point of maxing out on points but I'm at least confident that I will pass each section just fine.  I have plenty of time to work my way up to a 300 since our real APFT isn't until Sept 27.  I will admit the Army is more strenuous with PT than the Air Force.  In the Air Force ROTC we only have to complete one PFT a semester.  In the Army ROTC, we do one once a month.  Also, the Air Force is only 1.5 miles, 1 minute situps, 1 minute push-ups.  The Army is 2 miles, 2 minutes situps, and 2 minute pushups.  Oh and another thing...the Army situps are different than Air Force.  In the Air Force, we did our situps with our hands crossed in front of us.  The Army does them with your hands behind your head.  I don't really understand this concept because to me it just puts more stress on your neck but oh well...rules are rules right?

Well wish me luck everyone!  I will break the news of my APFD scores Monday.  Hopefully I do well.  =)

Jitters are back!

So tomorrow I am officially back in the game!  Education game that is!  My stomach is all in knots and I have no idea why!  I mean it's not like this is my first time going to a different school or even a different college.  And it's not like I don't already have a feel of what my classes will be like so what is the fuss Beba!

It could be that it's my first time going out-of-state (Florida I mean) and on my own....plus the husby of course!  Since I left the "nest", everything has been a new adventure.  Which I guess jitters do go hand in hand with trying new things even if the actual adventure isn't really that new.  UNCP is a bit different from UCF and even Valencia.  It's way smaller than either and I've never had to drive through two whole towns to get to school either lol.  But with jitters or not, I know I'm ready to get back to the books.  I love learning and doing new things.  My two semester vacation has been great and all but I need more than just sleeping in and being lazy all day.

I've decided to not take a light load this semester.  By all means, I'm not working so why should I right?  A total of 17 credits.  Here are the classes on this semesters schedule.  Wish me luck everyone!

-Intro to Programming (This should be easy)

- Intro to Algorithms

- Website Development

- Calculus with Applications

- Military Science II (Army ROTC)

Praying for a Miracle...

So these last couple of days have been a bit discouraging but I'm determined to try my best to beat the situation.  Turns out that only 54 credits transferred over instead of the 70 that I was originally told would transfer.  Not that those 70 even mattered now that I think of it because they didn't even count for anything more than electives under UNCP's curriculum.  =(

The only thing that has been giving me hope right now is the conversation I had with one of the admissions advisers.  He told me that I could talk to the department chair of the school of Math and Computer Science and present to him my argument that certain classes I took at Valencia and UCF should qualify as transferable credits for some of the classes I'm required to take.  Well today I have a fully prepped argument ready to take to the department chair but it's been impossible to get a hold of this guy.  The crazy thing is that this department chair is only going to be in my department area until tomorrow and the new chair won't be taking over until the 15th.  It's so frustrating because I need to know what classes I should be signing up for and class starts on the 17th (next Wednesday)!

I'm seriously needing a miracle because if I can get these four classes to transfer I will be able to graduate in two years exactly instead of dragging it out to three years.  God knows I just want to be finished with this milestone in my life!

A Brighter Day Indeed

Today turned out to be very productive.  My financial aid paperwork came in the mail today.  (Thank goodness for USPS address forwarding lol)  I got awarded a Pell Grant and a Subsidized loan which will cover everything! My admission packet didn't come in though so I decided to drive out to Pembroke today and get some things done and request my admission paperwork as well.

After paying for my orientation fee and getting my BID number, I sat down with one of the ladies in the Admissions office to go over my transfer evaluation.  Turns out over 70 credit transfer over making me a Junior....YAYYYYY!!!!  I was sooo exicted to hear that.  It was the light towards the end of the tunnel for me.  A lot of my friends are already graduated with their Bachelors and sometimes I feel like these last four....wait five years of school....have been wasted away.  But seeing that atleast 70 of my 90+ credits transferred over was a lovely surprise for me. 

Monday I'll meet up with the ROTC secretary to go over my education plan based off my transfer eval.  I guess I can officially say I'm a UNC Pembroke student!  Wish me luck!

Beyond Frustrated....

So school starts in three weeks and nothing is going smoothly!  I STILL haven't gotten my application packet.  I called today and they said it was going to get sent out today.....to FLORIDA!!!  So I told them that is the wrong address...they put me on hold to see if they could pull it out of the mail bin for today....oh wait...apparently it got mailed out yesterday!  Ughhh....so they are hopefully going to get another packet out today to my correct address here in North Carolina.  My next call was to Financial Aid to check my award status.  Good news is I did get awarded...Bad news is that they won't tell me how much I got awarded!  I have to find out in the mail...oh wait more bad news!  They are mailing my award letter to Florida too!  Can you say....AHHHHHHHHHH!!!  Yes I really feel like screaming...they said I MIGHT be able to get it fixed before the letter goes out if I fax in an address change request today but still...By the time it gets here I will be signing up for my classes and I won't even know how much money I have to use and if/what I will be owing  for my classes.  I really want to cry.

My next battle is to find out how many of my classes transfer so I can sign up for only the classes I need. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the registrar office and see if I can get a glimpse of hope....hope that they will take a majority of my classes so I don't need more than two years.    :sigh:  I hope something goes right tomorrow.  =(

College Jitters

So today has been a busy day running around getting things done before school starts.  I just got an email last week saying I got accepted to UNC Pembroke....FINALLY! lol So now I have TONS of things I need to do before school starts in hmmmm....only THREE weeks!

I had to go to the Army Education Center on post...took me like 20 minutes to find the place.  Then I had to drop off some papers to my husband.  In order to get in-state tuition, his Captain needs to sign a military affidavit or waiver so I can qualify.  Turns out I'm going to have to write up the memo...all his Captain does is sign it...so yay to more work for me to do lol.  Next I drove out to Pembroke.  I spoke with the ROTC secretary about signing up for classes.  Since I took two years of ROTC already I don't need to take the first year classes but I'll have to retake the second year classes because my second year at UCF was Air Force related and now I'll be transfering to Army.  Still awesome to know I don't have to retake both years.  Next, I went to the Student Health Services office and filled out my medical forms.

Now all I have left is to make a few follow up phone calls to Financial Aid and Student Health Services later this week to make sure all my information was received.  And last but not least, Transfer Student Orientation on August 13th.

I'm super excited to be starting school again but I'm nervous as well.  More nervous about ROTC really.  I haven't done ROTC for over two years now and I'm switching branches so it is going to be pretty different.  I hope I do well and maybe qualify for some free money too lol.