By Amy Nielsen

Week three of my master’s of science degree program and I have hit the “Oh sweet Mary Mother of all that is holy, what on Earth have I gotten myself into?” phase of freshman life.

Between the crash course in online scholarly research and APA citations, coordinating all of the class syllabi dates with my already busy life, and an organic chemistry professor who prefers the shotgun method of online instruction – I might just lose my ever-loving mind.

Week one went something like this - “Where are my classes and how do I know what to learn?”

Lucky for me my husband is also in school and his program uses the same online platform so I had

some inside help working through the technology curve. It was steep, and I almost missed a whole class

that ends mid trimester because I wasn’t familiar enough with the platform. But I succeeded and made

it through.

Week two was a total blur. We had a previously scheduled vacation in a state far from home with family

I love dearly. I pushed through to make sure I got all of my assignments in. What I lost was the

time I needed to comprehend some of the more challenging classes. I decided to take the entire weekend off to spend with my family, and it was a mistake. I should have put a little time into my studies each day. Now, I am far behind the eight ball and I will pay for it.

This past week everything ramped up. We are no longer new students to be handled with kid gloves. We

are master’s degree candidates with, in some cases, years of professional experience behind us. Step up to the plate, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to start playing ball. There was a noticeable jump in the amount of material covered, the length of assignments, the depth of research required, and the degree of professionalism expected.

The added work load coupled with the pressure cooker of my personal experiences on vacation turned

this past week into pure and unadulterated hell. Time management went out the window and

everything sat on top of me like a ton of bricks. It seemed like every task I completed for one class

generated three more. My organic chemistry professor decided that now would be a great time to

introduce naming hydrocarbon compounds. Meanwhile, another class called Perspectives in Complementary and Integrative Medicine we were introduced to our dreaded group project team members, and only one other person in my group can write intelligibly. Shoot me now.

This says nothing about the other things I am juggling in my life - homeschooling our daughters and

preparing for the classes I am offering through the business I am trying to build. Not to mention

somewhere in there I would like to see my friends and maybe have a bit of fun. Did someone say relax?

Ha!

I ran myself into a studying stupor this week. When I started in on the chemistry homework early in the

Week, and realized that I didn’t even understand the words in the question, I knew I was going to be in

trouble. I spent half a day finding a program and compiling a playlist of tutorials to cover what had

been covered in the course so far. I set myself up to binge watch organic chemistry. How’s that for a

blazingly fun Sunday? It took me three days to get caught up enough to follow the video lecture presented by my actual professor.

Did I mention my organic chemistry professor likes the shot gun approach to learning? He posts seven

different sources of materials and says, take six pages from here, these hundred pages in the text

book, this video, these two power point presentations, and these nine pages of single paced notes and

go teach yourself organic chemistry.

We are in week three and we have read 377 pages of the 900 page textbook already. We have 16 weeks of class. At this rate we will be done with the text book in the next two weeks. I wish to publically thank Sal Khan for providing me with my organic chemistry lifeboat.

My favorite class so far is of course the shortest at only one and a half credits and it only meets for seven weeks:  Perspectives in Complimentary and Integrative Health. It is is turning out to be a really interesting discussion class. We will have the team paper to present for peer review at the end of it, which means collaborative writing, but I come from the world of theater design. If I can do art by committee, I can certainly do health policy by committee.

I had a slight panic late last night when I couldn’t remember if I had even opened my physiology module

this week. I snuck down to check at 3 a.m., and lo and behold I had completed all of the assignments

on Monday. I don’t even remember doing them, but I even wrote a 300-word essay on tight

junction function which reads remarkably well if I do say so myself.

What this insane time is helping me to realize is that I am capable. I can fail at something and still be

able to move forward knowing that the understanding will come with time and practice. That in the

cracks of time between the panic of everything there is peace. With attention to detail, repetition, and

perseverance I will make it through this program.

I am sure it will get harder than this. I am sure I will actually fail an assignment. I am also very sure I will receive my degree in August of 2019 - unless organic chemistry kills me first.

By Amy Nielsen

Nothing like stepping off the proverbial master’s degree cliff into your next career step - on Labor Day.

While I just completed a year-long, online certificate program, this beginning feels so much bigger. I am embarking on something I had no idea I would ever in a million years need to do, let alone want to do. I am so stoked for this educational adventure it makes me giggle.

My beloved has been working his way through his bachelor’s over the last few years, using various online learning platforms. I have used only the one my last program created as a proprietary system. It did use a module structure, which the current program uses as well. It is very helpful to have someone in the family who has already used this platform. He has figured out all sorts of tricks to make it easier to work with, like importing my assignment calendar into my google calendar. That he prefers this platform over all of the others he has worked with makes me feel more at ease.

I really like the module system. The Instructor for each class creates one module per week. All of the required work for that week is neatly packaged in reading order for you to step through completing assignments along the way. Usually there is a quiz at the end of the week to tie it all together. Each assignment remitted is date and time stamped and often logged into a collective forum where students can interact with each other. It’s like getting a shoebox full of the week’s work, no need to try to follow along with the syllabus.

I am full up with my schedule having chosen the two-year completion option when I registered. That means that I take five full-time classes a trimester. In reading the syllabi for each class some Instructors have neatly detailed out the expected minimum and maximum time to complete each module and assignment. This makes it much easier for me to plan out my weeks.

I had so much already planned for the fall before I embarked on this massive undertaking. I had travel plans, education plans for my homeschooled children, classes and workshops for my startup practice, not to mention regular housework and garden maintenance.

Honestly my biggest hurdle, and my biggest fear, is the timing of this whole process. In my other course, weekly class work was self-paced. If I missed a week for a trip I was on, I could catch up with my work and was not docked for being tardy. The only time-sensitive assignments were the four exams and the six conference calls.

This master’s program is back to hard-on academics. Time management at school has always been a weak point in my educational toolbox. I tend to do best if I can binge focus on a subject for a few days and get everything done at once. My hope is that the Instructors have not locked the modules in such a way as to not allow me to work ahead if I get a few free days.

Interaction among students is key for this degree program. It is highly emphasized through weekly discussion board assignments and chats. Because we are working on learning about the collaborative structure in integrative health care it is imperative that we learn to communicate effectively across a broad spectrum of peoples and fields. This is why timely interactions are weighted heavily and mandatory in nature. That makes it difficult to binge watch physiology.

I am planning to use the free hours between clients at my office to get school work done as well if I can get the internet system worked out.  If I can’t I can at least print out or download the articles I need to read, and then there are always the test book assignments to read. Plenty to do if I can’t get the internet working properly to stream the lecture videos.

There are two other areas in my student interface that I am interested to learn more about. The online access to the library and the open student forum. Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed and we used card catalogues, the library was one of my favorite places on campus. Visiting was like sitting in the chambers of the heart of the campus beast. Every library sort of feels like that to me now. I wonder at the feelings I will get from the virtual library.

I once took my baby brontosaurus butt to the volunteer student run vegan café in the student union for conversations and announcements among the bagels, chunky wool sweaters, rideshare boards, and oily black bean water. Now, this online student forum will be interesting and perhaps a bit less juicy than my previous collegiate experience.

All that being said, the hardest classes are going to be the self-paced mandatory “how to be a college student in the digital age” classes all incoming students have to take. I have a fluid writing style that is sometimes hard to fit into an academic format. I love to read and research but my citations are never done correctly the first time. I have two of these classes this trimester and they are going to be killers.

I am giving myself this first trimester to get my feet on the ground and sort out the ins and outs of this program. I will complete everything but I am also allowing myself a week or two of beginners mind and practice not perfection mantras while I wrap my brain around the amount of work I have just undertaken.

I suspect that within the next month I will at some point look back on today and wonder what all of the fuss was about. I will be running on autopilot, completing assignments with ease, switching from course to course like a seasoned student. I love learning. I love new information. I really dig academics. What I am terrified of is the school part of this journey. The deadlines and commitments. It’s going to be one heck of a march, but I have done harder and this one ends with a really great reward.

By Jenna Moede

We have already covered how I narrowed down my potential Master's degree options, but while I did that, I had to narrow down universities as well.  

This process took a lot of time, but once I figured out what I wanted out of a school, it became much easier.  

First, I took my time researching schools that offered the programs I had chosen as options. I looked into which schools offered those programs completely online because some of the schools offered them as hybrid programs which would have done me no good. I don't have the option to attend campus.  

Through my search, I found a couple of schools that really peaked my interest. They interested me for different types of reasons from website usability to extracurricular options, but at that point, I hadn't yet looked into the most important factors for me.  

I needed, most importantly, to look at some key information for each university. First, I wanted to know about their reputation overall.  

I wanted to know not only about the reputation overall but also about retention rates, graduation rates, return on investment, cost to students and the rate of students getting jobs in their fields after graduation. I factored each of these into my consideration and decision making.  

After I learned everything I wanted to know about the schools and their reputations, I had about five universities left.  

I finally requested information from those universities about the programs they had that interested me, and once I received the information whether by mail or email, I began to read through it and reach out to the admissions teams.  

Several of the schools assigned me to an admission advisor upon requesting information which made it super easy to ask questions and find out answers. One university did not assign me to an admissions advisor and because of that, I eliminated them from my options.  

Having learned my lesson the first time around with my Master's, I asked the admissions advisors right away about the programs, outlooks and told them about my goals. They helped me determine if the programs under consideration would really help me meet my long term goals or if they would waste more time and money (again).  

From there I could eliminate a few more schools, and I found that the admissions advisors told me only the facts about the program so I could make informed decisions. They didn't try to sway me into a program that wouldn't help me just to have another student attending the university.  

By the end I only had two universities left. By this time I knew I liked the website, extra-curriculars, education platforms, programs, staff and options so I checked out the last, deciding factor: money.  

I had already looked at the degree plans for each of the two final programs and I knew how many credits each would require so I looked at the cost per credit hour. One university of the two gave a significant discount for the spouses of active duty military personnel while the other did not.  

I made my final decision based on that. While I didn't consider cost the most important factor, leaving it for the final decision seemed like a good option because I already knew I liked everything else about the school and that the university would help me reach my goals so I knew I wouldn't be compromising based on a cheaper tuition.  

If neither one had offered a discount, I would have had a tougher decision to make because I liked both options very well, but in the end, I feel like I chose the university that checked all of my needs and most of my wants off of the list.  

By Jenna Moede

I already told you all one of my secrets that I keep locked away - that I messed up my first go-round on my Master’s degree. Coming from the top of my class in high school and a Dean’s List student in college, it hurt, but I also learned how to choose a path that, this time, will help me reach my goals.

I realized that when it comes to choosing a degree, I didn’t have to see all my high school and college friends as competitors. Instead, they could help me and guide me.

Right away I rebuilt connections that I had let slip away. I needed the help and support of those that I’ve always had friendships with. Starting my master’s after they finished didn’t matter a bit to them, and it never should have mattered to me.

Next, I took the pressure off myself. I knew I wanted my Master’s and I didn’t want to put it off any longer, however, I had to train my brain to understand that researching and choosing a program that fit me didn’t mean I had put college off, it meant I wanted to do this the right way.

I always say if not now, when? But when it comes to this situation, you can’t rush the decision-making process. I’ve mentioned this before with choosing to start undergraduate studies as undeclared, but since graduate programs don’t require generals, you don’t have built in wayfinding time. Make your own but just make sure you’re not delaying in the name of research.

Next, I really thought about what I wanted to do. Hopefully you’ve already made the right decision for your undergraduate degree so you won’t have as much trouble with this as I did, but if you haven’t take your time to really find what you want to do, take this crucial step.

This time around I chose something based on firsthand knowledge and experience rather than something that I thought sounded okay. I know that I enjoy teaching English because I have done it for the past two years, and I know I enjoy writing because I have experience doing so.

If you lean toward something you haven’t had hands-on time with, I highly recommend job shadowing or trying to interview someone who has that “dream job” just to learn a little more about it. Choosing a Master’s means a huge commitment, so make sure you take all the precautions.

Next I took my goal and started to research it. I knew I had a lot of options and routes I could take so I narrowed them all down. I looked into job positions with each degree, licensing (if applicable) per state, and the projected growth rate and salary of each.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics became my best friend for finding information I felt I could rely on, and I felt better after researching exactly what positions I could go into after I attained any one degree.

I took it a step further on my own after finding a few positions that really interested me, and I researched those to make sure I didn’t miss anything if I pursued the degree I hoped would provide that opportunity.

Lastly, I compiled my notes and focused on a few graduate programs that I felt had a lot of potential to lead me where I wanted to go. That coupled with an attainable, reasonable and passion driven goal helped me in my search for the school that fit me the best.

I didn’t have an easy time getting here, and I know that I will hit bumps in the road this time too, but at least this time I feel like I put ample thought, reason and passion behind my decision.

I put myself in gear, did the research and made the decision without letting unnecessary time go by or extra delays. I had to find the balance between giving my decision thought without action and action without thought. 

By Jenna Moede

I told you all that I will head back for my Master’s this fall which I feel really excited about, but I’ve had a really hard time making that decision. 

See, I messed up my path to my Master’s degree in the past and since then I have totally shied away from going back.  

I know I want my Master’s, and I feel confident this time that I chose the right program to study, but I still feel like my confidence has taken a hit because of what happened before.  

A while ago, I started on my way to a Master’s program. I needed to lead into my program with a certificate because I had no measurable experience in my new field - nutrition. While it really counted as two different programs, since I planned to complete both, the programs merged in my mind. 

I picked my Master’s degree on a whim because I had always enjoyed learning about health, and all my friends already knew their graduate school and program or had already started so I felt a ton of pressure to just get moving on something, anything!  

Since I felt so rushed, I just enrolled at the university I finished my undergrad degree at which I hadn’t really wanted to go back to, and I found myself accepted and enrolled without much thought or reasoning. 

Coming from successfully earning my Bachelor’s, I really thought I had made the right decision, but even so, it all happened fast.  

Next thing I knew, I had taken out loans and paid for classes to hopefully land my dream job - a job that had only popped into my mind about a month before starting.  

I did no research and I asked no questions.  

For some reason, I felt I bothered my academic advisor when I asked anything at all.  

Finally, after my second semester I started questioning if this program really interested me and why I had started it in the first place.  

I didn’t want my friends to leave behind, but I also didn’t want to keep wasting money on something that wouldn’t help me in the future.  

I started asking for guidance from my advisor. Within a week of talking to her, I figured out that this program wouldn’t even help me get close to the job I thought I had started studying about.  

So, I gave up for a while.  

I didn’t finish the program but obviously still had to pay for it. I felt discouraged, disappointed and stuck. Within the next year, I watched my friends graduate with honors from their graduate schools, and I started to pull away from those connections.  

They reminded me of my failure in graduate school. During my period that I had off, I made a million excuses for why I didn’t have to go back, but I also discovered my passion for teaching and writing through actual experience, not just a hunch.  

As I gained a little perspective and felt less desperate, I realized I was the only thing holding me back anymore because I didn’t want to go back after everyone else had finished. 

So I made the decision to start the ball rolling in the direction of finishing my Master’s (again) but this time, I decided to do it all the right way.   

By Christine Cioppa

We all choose online learning for different reasons. Behind that decision is a motivating factor, most often a career-related one and sometimes a personal one.

Experts are studying why some of us gut it out, and why some of us quit or put it off -- for what seems indefinitely -- until we finally stick it out and achieve completion in our certificate or degree program.

What is known, though, are things to watch out for – things that can shake our motivation to the core or throw us off track.

Market research on students obtaining an online education shows that the desire to finish can wane when certain circumstances occur:

• Family circumstances change
• Money for school runs out
• Relevance of program content becomes unclear
• Interest in classes diminishes
• Time not as abundant after starting a new family
• Illness

A report by BestColleges.com listed additional roadblocks to success:

• Internet and technology access issues
• Maintaining minimum GPA
• Keeping up in pace to graduate in time
• Scheduling campus visits to support some portion of an online program

We can’t always control circumstances that delay our success, but we can do everything possible to continue to strive toward success.

If any of the above is an issue, or may become one, you can brace for it and look for possible solutions or work-arounds. Here are five ideas to start with:

Make Time for What’s Important

Let’s face it: What’s important to us, we will make time for. That goes for anything: the people in our lives, our activities, our school or work, our level of fitness and diet decisions, etc. It’s important to balance our lives. But, with collaboration from family and friends, we can set priorities that include the most important parts of our lives while also balancing the challenges of earning a higher degree. That may mean waking up earlier in the morning, or giving up a few favorite TV shows, or asking for help from others, but often it can be possible. Maybe a life crisis calls for dialing it back, or taking only one class instead of several. The key is finding a solution that keeps your education goal still in eyesight down the road. The most important thing is to just never quit if an education is important to you. The pride many of us feel with achieving a certificate or higher degree is so worth the marathon-like mindset we have to have to push past the exhaustion and discomfort we sometimes can feel, sprinting toward that finish line.

Reel in Discretionary Spending

One of the top reasons people quit is money. Of all the leisurely ways we spend money (cable TV, dinning out, food and/or alcohol, clothes/beauty products, etc.), there often is room to squeeze some more toward something else. And if not, there are student loans. Also, think about creative ways to help pay for school (working at a company that provides excellent tuition reimbursement, working for the university for discounts) to reduce the overall cost.

Boost Long-Term Earning Potential

Of all the ways we spend money, higher education pays us back in the long run – through employment opportunities and higher pay. The Department of Labor’s employment projections show that people who earn any type of higher education past the high school level are less unemployed than those who just finish high school or who don’t complete high school. And with every degree earned, the rate of pay significantly increases, topping out around a “professional” or “doctoral” degree. Weekly pay can double or even nearly triple with the highest degrees.

It’s not just about money; a degree shapes us. For many of us, it is who we are; we are lifelong learners. Former Vice President Joe Biden has famously said, “Don't tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.”

Steer Clear of Complainers

If there’s not a lot of people striving for what you are, it’s time to find some like-minded, positive people to chat with. Negativity, within ourselves or around us, is completely unproductive and can make one lose sight of long-term goals. If your online program has a forum, embrace opportunities to collaborate with peers and cheer each other on. Don’t let the chronic complainers, in class or elsewhere in life, make you feel your goals or your classwork, is not as valuable or exciting as it can be. So team up with people who love school and who look for the best in others, and steely your resolution to complete your educational goals.

Never Quit

The most important thing is to never quit. When things get tough and life circumstances try to derail us, or doubt or negativity or discomfort make the challenge so much harder, just keep taking one step forward.  Richard Branson, creator of Virgin airlines, is an example of resilience. He says, “On every adventure I have been on – whether setting up a business, flying around the world in a balloon or racing across the ocean in a boat – there have been moments when the easy thing to do would be to give up. By simply not giving up, brushing yourself down and trying again, you'll be amazed what you can achieve.”

By Jenna Moede

Seize the day, right? I’ve heard it a million times as I know you probably have too, but I agree with it when it comes to college.

People get so hung up on the concept of time when they decide whether to go back to school. They have so many concerns and fears that it becomes overwhelming and ultimately, they decide not to pursue their degree.

But timing doesn’t have to control everything.

If I wait for the perfect time for everything, I will never accomplish anything because in my life the stars don’t typically align so that everything turns out perfectly.

I know a lot of people hope to keep a traditional school schedule - start in the fall and end in the spring.

If you have that mindset, seize the day! I feel fall peeking around the corner already so don’t put it off another year.

I’ve noticed that people with this mindset seem to push their goals to the backburner and let fall after fall go by without starting school.

If a traditional schedule matters to you, apply now. Start the admission process so that you can have everything set and ready with no surprises by the time the semester starts.

Admission doesn’t happen overnight so don’t waste your summer saying you’ll go back but then when push comes to shove let it go because you didn’t turn everything in on time.

It comes down to this: if not now, when? You could put it off another year, but I really want you to ask yourself what will change between now and then before you stall your goals.

Age stops a lot of people from applying too. A lot of spouses married their service members at young ages often at the same time their friends were beginning college.

While many college students pull all-nighters and pursue their dreams, military spouses deal with the challenges of moving, working, and maintaining balance. The sheer number of items on the to do list causes many spouses to put off thinking about college until after the stereotypical period of directly after high school.

That wait scares a lot of students off. They might never come out and say that they feel uncomfortable as the oldest in class, they feel rusty at studying or just that too much time has gone by, but they do find other reasons about why they have to wait.

If that’s you, think about what will change in another year. Will you be younger next year? Will your goals and dreams change?

Also, don’t forget that the average age of college students has increased according to recent studies so maybe you will meet other students in a similar boat!

I’ve watched several of my close friends graduate with their Master’s degrees since we’ve all finished our Bachelor’s, and I can’t help but feel left behind.

I always wanted to finish my Master’s degree, but it feels weird to start after so many people I knew from high school and college have already finished.

As much as I want to let this time excuse win, I’ve decided to quit letting timing dictate what I want. I will start my Master’s this fall. Will you join me for your certificate or degree?

By Jenna Moede

Students need to have a way to let off steam after a long hard semester. Summer vacation provides an opportunity for that.

However, before you just sleep in late or relax inside, think about all the ways the outdoors can provide relaxation.

NPR recently released a study about the Japanese tradition of forest bathing. Forest bathing doesn’t literally involve bathing, instead someone who forest bathes focuses on immersing themselves in the forest with no preplanned destination while taking in the sights and smells and involving all their senses.

Why do it? Simple. Studies have shown that forest bathing reduces stress, reduces blood pressure and helps people incorporate physical activity into their lives leading to some other health benefits.

We all understand the stress of juggling the military life with college so reducing stress and relaxing (with the bonus of health benefits) can only help us handle it all.

I like to visit state and national parks as a way of getting outside and relieving stress, and as it turns out, they offer excellent places to forest bathe.

If you want to give forest bathing a try, seek out a park in your area. Don’t worry, if you don’t feel forest bathing calling your name, you can find so many other activities to help you refocus or reduce stress.

First, if you don’t know how to locate a park near you, check out stateparks.com. On this website, you can select a state and then choose your park on a list of state parks, national parks, national forests and national recreation areas among others.

When you select a park, the site offers information about the history, directions, activities and even lodging. Talk about making it easy!

Along with the opportunity to try forest bathing, state parks have a vast variety of other activities to enjoy including hiking, fishing, biking, boating, camping and even special events.

The closest state park to my home, Curt Gowdy State Park, provided a guide-led New Year’s Day hike bright and early in the morning. Needless to say we showed up nice and early to start our new year with some relaxation and head clearing activities plus a few falls into some fresh snow.

They even have a special event in the summer where they give out free fishing poles to kids and teach fishing workshops. The special activities always blow me away so once you pick a state park to visit, take the time to look into their upcoming events.

Some state park systems run discounts for military so make sure to ask when you pay your entrance fee.

If you chose to visit a national park, military members have free admission to the national park system. If you don’t already have a National Park Pass, the military member can ask at any park entrance and will need to show his or her ID card. The passes stay active for a year before you’ll need to ask for a new one.

While I plan to give forest bathing a shot during the last month or so of summer vacation, I encourage you to open the door and visit a state park even if just for the sake of exploring.

Head into the forest and let go of your semesters in the past, enjoy the present moment to reduce stress and think about how to make the next semester smooth and successful. I know I reflect best in the quiet of the woods.

By Amy Nielsen

Never in a million years did I think I would be going to graduate school. But here I am, with an acceptance letter in my inbox and the FAFSA application open in the next tab over. Now what? How is this all going to fit in to the already topsy-turvey life we lead?

I recently completed a professional certification with the intent on following on with this master’s program. I specifically went through the certification so that I could do a follow on school through one of their many articulation agreements with institutes of higher learning who have complete online master’s programs to support my professional goals.

However, the state of New York made the decision to disallow online master’s programs for accreditation midway through my certification schooling. The institute I was to follow on to was such a program.

This left me hanging. I had to either find a program with a partial residency program that would accept my certification, continue on with my career plans and sort out a different solution to credentialing, or sit tight and wait for the illustrious state of New York to get its act together. In early June, the institute completed compilation and accreditation for a new partial residency program that meets New York States requirements.

HUZZAH! So when was it going to be open for us to apply? When were the residency dates? What courses of study were accepted into the partial residency program, since not all of the master’s programs met the requirements. Time to sit back and wait again.

I received an email from the institute’s registrar 16 days before the application due date. Nothing like making a fast decision about the next two years and a whole lotta debt to incur in a very short amount of time.

Luckily my husband was home when I opened and read the email and we were able to take a collective family breath and decided I had to go for it now and not defer. It means we will have two adult fulltime students in the house at the same time, but since we homeschool our kids, it means we all sit at the table and school together.

Once we made the decision that I would bite the bullet and apply I realize the logistical nightmare I had just waded into. I had done nothing yet to apply to this school as we had no idea when or if New York would ever accept this program.

Not to mention I needed transcripts and it was the Friday before July 4^th. Every office I needed to contact was operating on a different schedule.

In the end it was painless to apply to graduate school. When I last applied for college, you had to rip the application out of the book, type in the answers or – gasp - handwrite them, and then send it with three sealed letters of recommendation, sealed official high school transcripts, a typed essay, your SAT score reports ,and of course the money order deposit, in one package, in the mail.

Now, online autofill applications are a breeze. That is nothing to say for electronic official transcripts and letter of recommendation portals.

Within seventy-two hours of opening the letter I had a fully submitted application to a master program I wasn’t sure was ever going to be able to happen.

Within thirty-six hours of the application deadline, a week after submitting my application, I had my answer.

I’m going to graduate school for a master’s of science!

Now the real fun begins, because in the week that I was waiting to hear about my application, I met with the owner of a small studio space. I wanted to rent out time in her office to see my clients and hold small classes. She needs someone to use the space in the morning and my schedule preference is in the morning. It is a perfect fit - schedule wise. We hit it off great and have very similar philosophies in practice. I pick up my key next week and can begin seeing clients in the space the following week.

The universe just couldn’t leave well enough alone though.

Last night my darling husband messaged me that the long awaited and much anticipated schedule change at his place of employment is in fact really happening and our whole day, not to mention year, will need to be reworked to accommodate this new rotating schedule. That will begin next week.

Um.

I teach breathing - so breathe.

HUM.

Today I plan to finish writing this blog, fill out the FAFSA federal student loan application, try to understand this weird rotation thingy, then take a very long walk in the woods.

Tomorrow I will pull down the calendar, write out the new work schedule, which is always a moving target, and see where the chips fall.

Regardless, we have two adults in undergraduate or graduate school, two kids in elementary school and a business on the verge or tipping into something real if I can just hang on to the roller coaster.

So watch this space. A lot more is coming down the pike, and I think the breaks are out.  As my dear compass mentor taught me, “Sempre Gumbi” (Always be flexible).

By Amy Nielsen

My business is based on the premise that wellness is really three systems of care: body, mind, and spirit. I work in a holistic practice that honors the intersection of western and indigenous philosophies. A large part of indigenous teachings involve plants. So I began a formal study of herbology.

I am a middle class, white girl from the ‘burbs. When I started this journey a few years ago, I could barely tell you what a dandelion was, let alone that you could eat it. If you told me it was one of the most useful plants we have in our basic herbal tool kit, I would have told you they are bitter, the sap gives my uncle hives, and the seed heads are fun; but the word useful might be pushing it. Somedays, even now, I feel very much like a fish out of water in large gatherings of my peers. They all seem to have grown up with this knowledge in their cells.

Herbs are becoming so prevalent in our day to day lives that I need to understand how they play a role in becoming us and how they interact with each other and everything else if I am going to serve the best interest of my clients.

I am not training to become a clinical herbalist. I know so many amazing clinical herbalists that I would rather support them than learn the whole shabang myself. But because so many people are turning to herbs, I need to be able to have a good working knowledge of the basics if for no other reason than so that my clients have a safe sounding board for their ideas.

I recently returned from an internationally attended herbal conference, held at a small liberal arts college on a stunning campus filled with beautiful botanical specimens. The organizers are all bigwigs on the international scene - founding members of large conservation organizations, principle formulators of well-known corporations, teachers from renowned schools.

However, it was an intimate conference of only about 500 participants. The schedule was jam packed with heavy duty science content classes, up to the minute, personal accounts of boots on the ground conservation efforts, and deeply moving community ceremony.

The herbal community is an interesting group of people. All are deeply passionate about, driven by, and focused on the plants. What path that takes can vary as wildly as an urban vertical hydroponic farmer, a licensed Appalachian forager, a naturopathic doctor working with cancer patients, a native elder recently back from Standing Rock, a shamanic healer from South America, and people like me. These, by the way, were my lunch companions yesterday. We talked about bad 80’s movies.

I found myself swimming with a somewhat regular group of other attendees following a similar tract through the classes. I made sure to get the contact information for those whose comments and questions I found pertinent to my interests and research lines.

As we rambled from class to class, two questions kept coming up for me as I watched the community of my elders, peers, and friends;

First, what do I have in common with these amazing souls? Learn to follow the leads of those compassionate joyful spirits as best you can.

And second, who let me in the club? Someone really didn’t check my creds well enough.

In one hardcore class, which I found particularly fascinating, I also felt like I should be looking to see when they were going to tell me I wasn’t allowed because I wasn’t advanced enough. It was my own little demon on my shoulder, no one in the class made me feel that way. I just couldn’t believe that lil’ ole me was given the opportunity to have an hour long, peer-to-peer conversation with some of my idol teachers about something I have been studying as an amateur for the last three years.

But that is the point of attending this type of event. My going to this was somewhat akin to a sophomore walking into a graduate level seminar, but I think I stood my ground and held my own well enough. Basically I was too scared stiff most of the time to open my mouth. I learned much more and I had less chance of stuffing my foot in there up to the knee.

The point is that I stretched myself. I took a leap, a somewhat flying leap, but I took it. That I actually landed on the other edge with only a little bit of pinwheel arms is only somewhat surprising. I knew this conference would be a stretch for my current knowledge base and level of community involvement for this leg of my practice stool.

I needed to push myself to step up to be what I say I want to be These experiences help me hone exactly what my practice looks like now and will look like in the future. But I also know that if I had attended last year I would have been totally overwhelmed.

So, while my going to this conference was driven partly by the content of the classes, it was almost more driven by the need to measure myself against the gold standards. To see where I feel comfortable sitting in the circle.

I know that I have a lot of work to do and a lot of knowledge to pursue, but I also know that where I am is a good place to begin working this for real. I have a solid platform of basics to work from. I have a working knowledge of the middle levels of this practice. I can begin to understand how the actions of those who are way out on the end of the spectrum might play a part. I know who to ask for specific systems now and I know the basic triage for them to have a solid foundation to build on.

Now it’s time to finish the final lessons and send them out so I can hold my head up high next time I see these teachers and we can all laugh about my other sophomoric mistake - sending the same cover letter to two different entities, then have them realize it while speaking to me over reishi and chocolate pudding.