For the Love of Learning

I have a few connections to BYU Independent Study:

1) I saw a cool commercial for BYU-IS back home, on BYU-TV. It featured a girl sitting on some South American ruins, using her computer. It was supposed to show that you could be having all kinds of adventures and still study. As someone suffering from a severe case of wanderlust, the commercial made BYU-IS seem really cool. (Since of course, ads always offer accurate portrayals of real people, right?)

2) One of my family members has taken 2? classes through BYU-IS, semi-recently.

3) 1/4 of everyone that I know has, at one time, worked at the BYU-IS office.

And so, since I'm wanting to take classes, it seemed logical to try a BYU-IS class.

Except, I've had a scholarship transfered, to pay for the tuition & book fees. And it has been the biggest hassle of my life. Almost.

They must think that I'm actually isolated at some South American ruins, or something, because they have made it their office goal to have everyone become BFF with me.

Trying to register for my class, I talked to the IS office, who had me talk to the BYU Financial Aide office, who coordinated things with the IS office. They figured out what I should do, and I had stuff sent over. And then, everything got mixed up in Christmas mail and took awhile to arrive. Fair enough. So after it should have arrived, I talked to the IS office, and talked to them again, and, oh, sad, the person I needed was gone on vacation. So I waited. And then I talked to the IS office, and they had me talk to the IS receiving office? or something. And they transfered me to the guy I really needed to talk to. And he finally registered me for my class a week ago. (Hooray!)

And he promised that I would recieve my class stuff. I asked him if the Bookstore would know what to do with the check that they would receive. They would, he said.

So I waited some more. And I got my IS class stuff! (Hooray!) And I was so excited to start, exceeeeppppptt.....I still don't have my book. It's structured so that I can't do much of anything until I receive it. Blast.

So after patiently waiting for my book, I called back today. Apparently the Bookstore doesn't know that I exist. The IS office doesn't know what's happening. I talked to 3 more girls today. I'm getting to know all of them. And all of them have advice for me. (Advice that they should've given when I called back in October.) [Mind you, the average conversation length with each of these people is 30-60 minutes.] Sweet mercy, will this saga never end? I'm supposed to call my dear friend who registered me last week (he was in a meeting when I called earlier.)

Today I registered for a second class. It was so simple. I walked into my yarn store. I asked if I had missed their January mailing. (I hadn't; they're sending it tomorrow.) I asked about the spinning class. They told me about it. I paid for my class, and that's it--I'm enrolled. I'll show up in two weeks, with a notebook and pen. They will provide everything else. Fantastic.

I really miss being a full-time student, but in one of those you-can't-appreciate-mountains-unless-you've-experienced-valleys sort of ways, I'm so pleased to have my two classes.