And it's gotten more real

I have obtained PERRLA and Grammarly...I have fallen in love with Grammarly.  I use it for things not even related to school.

I have set up my schoolwork area.  Translation:  I cleaned all the junk off my desk in the home office, set up my laptop, and bought several printer ink cartridges.  I set up a separate login on my computer just for school.  This account doesn't have access to Minecraft, and Chrome (the required browser for school) has no non-school or non-nursing bookmarks.  So whenever it's study time, there's no temptation for me to do other things.

Now I have completed Orientation.   It was not some fluff PowerPoint that I rapidly click through just to hit the required wicket.

Nope.  Nine parts, complete with tons of videos that were required viewing in order to advance to the next section, Q&A and assignments.  So much was going on that the I had to do some technical support first so I could keep my sanity.  I live and die by Google calendar as it keeps me on track with everything.  It talks to my iCal and to my iPhone.  Now I had to get my WGU calendar--which is another Google-based calendar--to talk to my iCal and my iPhone.   Then I had to find a Tasks app to talk to my WGU calendar, my computer and my iPhone.  Sorting all of that out took two days, but now everything is interacting as they should.

Plug:  gTasks Pro is the bomb.  I highly recommend it.

Once that was set up, I plugged all my Orientation work into my gTasks list and spent the week going through each one.

I also now have a program mentor...I've already spoken to her twice, actually.  We seem to get on rather well so far.  She's not a psych nurse--actually, she's in a specialty I could never do.  It's not L&D:  while my dislike for L&D is well-known, I choose not to do it.   I could do it if I had to, and I would probably be rather good at it too.  But there's a couple of specialties I can't ever do because they get to me, and they involve pediatrics.   Sick kids get to me too deeply, and my urge to throttle ignorant or abusive parents gets too strong.

BTW, mentor, in the highly unlikely event that you read this, you keep my secret and I'll keep yours.

So I completed the first set of tasks that Kid Nurse (as I will refer to her) assigned me.  Today, we walked through the degree plan and the first course, which is the typical Professional Practice course that starts off almost every BSN and MSN program.   Heck, even a lot of ADN programs have such a course included...at least, mine did.

I was never expecting my MSN to be easy.  Far from it:  I'm paying for a solid education so I expect to work hard and be worked hard.   But looking through the first course and the assessment I have to do...well, I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore.  This is some serious stuff.   It was a little overwhelming at first glance. 

Fortunately, Orientation also made me aware of the many resources WGU has and how to use them, so I at least know where I can turn to for help.   Plus I know that things will become clearer once I start on the coursework.

I have a month for this first course...well, I could take longer or do it faster, depending on how I pace myself.  But Kid Nurse set arbitrary course start/end dates and I'm glad she did.  I like having the structure of knowing when something is due than something that it open-ended.  A deadline both motivates me to stay on course and prevents me from falling into the never-ending cycle of revising  to get the elusive 100% perfect paper.   That's because I'm going to have to eventually turn it in.

There are a couple of study plans in the course, broken into weekly and daily.  While I may not adhere to them, it's nice to see all the requirements laid out so I can start plugging them into gTasks and iCal.

My first day of school is technically July 1.  However, I am able to start reading for this course, which I will definitely do tomorrow.  After I update gTasks and iCal, of course.  And have a nice long evening of uninhibited Minecraft.

It just got real

Orientation has arrived.

Today, I logged into the student portal to find the links to the orientation modules and recommended webinars.  I also saw my degree plan.  If I keep to their suggested plan, I will graduate by December 2020.  Of course, I can speed this up a bit if I want, and I probably will.

The waiting game

I completed a half-marathon the other day.  It wasn't my best time--3 hours and change--but it was one of the most fun ones I did because I met up with a sorority sister from our running group.  She's a better runner than I, but she was also recovering from an injury and was more than happy to keep me company for the 13.1 miles.  We both enjoyed it so much that we've already registered for next year's race.

Meanwhile, I decided that I was going to go full-bore crazy and register for my third half of 2018.  This one will be in November.

As far as post-race condition goes, I have a bad blister on my heel and I think I'm going to lose a toenail...again.  But I'm in a lot better condition than I was after the one in March.

So school begins on July 1.  I'm supposed to start orientation on the 15th of this month.  I'm just waiting for it to start.  I tried looking for some good books for nursing education students, but almost all of the results that turned up were NCLEX-related.  The rest were for nursing education instructors developing curriculum for students.

I applied for the scholarship at work.  I'll know in July.  I got some positive feedback on my application so I'm optimistic, but not overly so.  So I'm waiting to hear on that.

Meanwhile, I want to apply for the WGU scholarship.  I wrote my director asking if she would be a reference, but I haven't heard back from her yet, and it's been nearly a week.  So this weekend, I'm going to ask someone else if they're willing to do it.  While I'm waiting, I'm fine-tuning my answers for the application.