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In times of stress I try to sit back, take a hot bubble bath and think about what I need to do to get back on track. Or sometimes I try to think of absolutely nothing at all.

Juggling your life…

It isn’t easy. Life gives you ups and downs and sometimes we go sideways, but somehow with all the worries and all the stress we figure it out and we come up on top. For me I struggle with a full time job, school, and home. I work every week from 7-4pm and then in between during lunch and when I get home I have school work, and just recently I moved into my new place. So as you can imagine after a few years of absolute spoilness (okay that might not be a word, but anyhow…) I now have to do everything myself. I have to cook dinner, do laundry and cook. Yes I have a boyfriend and he’s been helping me do dishes and clean up but even with some help it’s a bit tough. Getting into the routine of things is hard. If I didn’t have school it might be a little easier, but I’m pushing myself everyday to keep going.

For some it’s easier….

For me, it’s hard… School as always been a struggle for me and each day, each class gets harder with more work. If you aren’t born into a family that can afford your education you have to juggle a full time job and school. You have to take student loans and books to survive. You have to take care of yourself, your job and your education, and sometimes I just feel like calling it quits! Then when my head stops stressing and I have time to actually think, I stop myself and I think about all the hard work I’ve already put into it, and I keep on going, and I keep on pushing through. No one ever told me life would be so hard, but then again no one ever told me it would be easy either.

xo,
kristin nicole
~Random Thoughts~

The Question:

Long story short, I am a Junior in high school and my boyfriend is a Senior. Up until just a few days ago we had both been planning on going to college at Michigan State University so we could stay close to home and close together over the next few years. Then he got a letter from Polytech NYU trying to recruit him to go there (chemical engineering). From what I’ve heard, that’s a pretty awesome school. He is very smart, and I’m sure he would do exceptionally well at any school he chose, but long term, is it worth the separation and heartache for him to go to Polytech as opposed to MSU?

My response:

Dear college;

This is a hard decision to make and you guys are still young, unfortunately if you stop him from going he could regret this in the future and end up blaming you, especially if you don’t work out in the long run and if you do work out, you don’t want him blaming you for not choosing the school he really wants to go to. Let him choose the college he wants to go to and if the two of you are really meant to be, you can try doing the whole long distance thing. If you really want to be with him, have you thought about looking at colleges in New York? They have a lot of great schools, but if your heart is set on Michigan, then don’t change schools for him. Again, I know its hard to hear, but the two of you are still very young and you don’t know whats going to happen in your futures, don’t push him away from the school he wants and if you guys really love each other you’ll try to find a way to make it work. Good luck.

xo,
kristin nicole

I found this question on Answers.Yahoo.com

Online Classes:

You take online classes, or at least I do because it’s easier for us folks who have to work Full Time Jobs. Online classes you can log on when you can, you do have a little more reading to do and probably a few more writing assignments but you have a due date, and you can log on and do your work at your own pace vs going to a campus, having to wait for class to start, going to night classes because you work full time and then coming home late only to eat and go to sleep and start your day over again. Online classes helps me organize my time, it allows me to have time to spend with family and friends, it allows me time to work out during the week, and if I have something to do that day, I don’t have to worry that I’ll be missing class.

Proctored Testing:

Some online classes require you take a Mid-term or a Final exam on campus. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m taking online classes because I don’t have time to go to the campus to take classes, so now you are telling me I have to go take a test on campus? Okay fine, I guess I have no choice right?!? So, I call the campus to find out how I set up a Proctored test since this is the first semester that I have two classes that require these tests and I find out that the proctored tests don’t need to be set up, you just walk in. Great, that seems easy enough. Wait?!? I’m not done…. Proctored testings are Monday through Thursday from 8:30am – 4pm and Friday’s from 8:30am – 1pm. Do you see where I’m going with this? I WORK FULL TIME! Did they not get the point of most people taking online classes? So now I have to either take a day off or take time off from my day to go take a test. WONDERFUL!?!

My thoughts:

Well I think you pretty much got my point here right? I’m not happy! My final exams, I have two classes that I’ll have to go to campus for, so do I take both of them on the same day, so that I don’t have to ask to leave early more then once in one week? Now I’ll have to make up my time at work so that I can make this happen. Boy what a mission! Can school be any more difficult?

Sincerely yours,
Frustrated!

xo,
kristin nicole

Brr it’s cold outside….

Wow I can’t believe we actually had a cold weekend and another cold week ahead of us. And I don’t mean 60 degrees cold, I mean it was 44 degrees this morning and going strong (This is cold to us Miamians). Reminded me a bit of when I had to go to work in California, waking up not wanting to get out of that warm bed, sitting on a cold toilet (girls you know what I mean) and getting in that car hoping the heater heats up just a little faster because I’m sitting on one hand trying to drive with the other frozen hand. Not east people, not easy!

Not complaining – Back to work

However, I’m not really complaining, pass me some gloves next time and I’ll be ready to go. Today is the first day back to work after the New Year, and I have to admit, it wasn’t easy waking up in the morning, as I’m sure it wasn’t for many, especially because of the cold. But I got off my tush and worked my way to the bathroom to get ready for a work day. WORK….Oh how I dislike that name, but I think School scares me more. Another semester coming up starting classes tomorrow. Thankfully I am taking all on line classes this semester but I will have to see my tutor for Statistics. (Uhhh that word scares me).

New Years resolutions

I’m not going to go down the list that I’ll probably break before the month ends but I am working on eating healthier and exercising. I didn’t have much time last semester but this semester should be a bit easier to make some time for some of those crunches. Back to the gym or working out at home on the bike or pilates. Either way, I have to start getting back into the groove. What are your New Years resolutions? Did you break any already?

Happy New Year all, may this year be filled with health, wealth, love, happiness and lots of se…..well you know

xo,
kristin nicole

So here we are August 24th, Back to School. Not just for us College folks, but elementary, middle and high school.

Back to school

Back to school seems to always cause headaches, car accidents, running late to work, the list goes on. For me it’s the headaches. I bought two of my books in advance but didn’t have all the information on one book so I had to buy it online today, well $102.00 later, I have a headache! Not only that but for me, well I’m planning on going on a trip for my boyfriends birthday Friday, and so I have my week booked along with starting my classes.

First Day of School

For others, it’s taking their kids to school maybe even for the first time. Like, my youngest nephew. Today my brother told me that the oldest one took him in like the good big brother he is, and tried to coach him into staying. Too cute, and too funny. My brother and sister in-law had to leave before the youngest one noticed. How sad! LOL.

Traffic

Others got stuck in the lovely thing we call TRAFFIC! Why is it that people can’t wake up on time to get their kids to school and get to work, and because everyone is running late to work, this causes accidents. I heard one time that the insurance companies and the hospitals are the busiest during the first 2 weeks of school starting, now that’s just crazy.

Get ready

Today I logged into my two classes to see what I needed to get ready for and now soon I’ll be heading to the campus for my third class. It doesn’t start until 5:40 so I don’t know what Ill do until then. Sit in the car and read?!?
*Sigh** Get ready because here I come…..

XO,
Kristin Nicole

Sitting in an office all day?

The Office

I wake up and I’m at work by 7am every morning. I sit in an office all day with no windows. Some may say it’s a bit depressing. Yeah, sometimes sunlight would be nice, some fresh air, the open sky, BUT Sometimes it’s nice that I’m back here with no one to bother me, away from the bad weather. Especially Rainy Season here in Miami. However, sometimes I wish I had some type of exciting job, a job where you have to get out and drive around a little, get out of the office, stretch your legs, smell the flowers.

To tell you the truth, I’m not sure where this story is going….There isn’t much to tell. You come in, you sit, you work and you leave. Do you realize that we spend most of our days with the people we work with then with the people we love? It’s pretty sad actually that half our lives are spent at work. If you love your job, I guess it’s not so bad, but if it’s just that “A JOB” Is anyone every truly happy to be there? It’s more of a means to gain money, to pay your bills and survive out there in the world.

Studying to have your career one day

After work I study, I go to class twice a week and the rest of the week I have on line classes. It’s tough having to work full time and go to school. If you are one of the lucky ones that your parents are paying for your education and you don’t have to work, you don’t know how good you have it. Stay focused and finish school as fast as you can. I pay my own way, and it’s hard sometimes, having to get that money each semester. Books alone depending on how many classes you’re taking can run you from 200 dollars and up. It’s truly ridiculous the prices of these books. Hmmm maybe I should get into the book business. I bet they make a fortune off of us. Those books can’t possibly cost what you pay for them.

So after a long night last night of studying for my Final Exam today, I have to say I don’t think I’m 100% prepared. I’m a bit of a wreck, and nervous, and I’m not feeling to confident about it. I just hope I do good. During lunch I’m going to review and a little before the exam. Wish me luck all…I NEED IT~

XO,
Kristin Nicole

Tuition Fees (Taking our money)

I was reading this article here that talks about 11 State Universities deciding to take full advantage on raising the residents tuition fee up to 15%.

This just pisses me off!!!

I get so upset when I see things like this. Raising tuition. I’m sorry is the tuition and classes and books already so cheap that we need to raise the prices on everything? Last time I checked I payed a pretty high price on my classes and lets not even get started on books.

It was stated in the article ”This is a year when students are going to see the largest increase in undergraduate tuition they have seen in years,” Jessel said. “We believe that extra need-based aid is very important.” SERIOUSLY?!? I can’t imagine having to pay more already out of pocket. I don’t apply for financial aid and getting a loan with the school system is a big time mission.

When I decided to go back to school after 4 years of not attending, I was turned down by the loan office due to a failing grade I had received 4 years prior in a different school. Does this make sense to you? I couldn’t get a loan because of a failing grade? 4 years ago!? What does this have to do with loaning me money??? I was grateful that at the time I was able to pay for school out of pocket, had I been unable to do so, the school system pretty much was telling me I couldn’t go back to school. Is this fair?

As of the past year I have continued to pay for school out of pocket, including books and supplies. This runs at Miami Dade College about $1300 dollars a semester taking up to 3 classes. At the moment I can afford to do this, because I live at home. If I had to get my own place which I plan on doing soon hopefully, I will more then likely have to get a loan. Hopefully this time I’ll be able to get one. If not, I am not sure what I’ll have to do.

Things are hard

Things are hard right now and they want to RAISE our tuition. Does this make sense? I think this will turn off people from going to school. What do you think?

XO,
Kristin Nicole

Miami Beach

Now most kids are on Summer Vacation. Oh how I wish I still had the summer off. If you are still getting summer vacation off, enjoy it while it lasts.

Summer

My mom works at a school so she gets summer off just like the kids. Don’t you wish your job would just tell you that they are taking summer off. Of course we would need to get paid though LOL. Oh how a girl can wish.

Summer Ideas

There are plenty of stuff to do while on summer vacation. You can take a trip, and if you can’t afford to do that you can always stay right here in Miami and go to the beach. Okay so some day’s this will be impossible, as we do live in Miami and it is rainy season. There are museums you can visit. You can go to Viscaya or the Deering Estate. The Deering Estate is one of my favorite. It has tours on the history of the two houses, but it also is just incredibly beautiful. There is also a few water parks for the children.

My plans

I don’t know if the end of August is still considered Summer Vacation to most people. However; I do plan on going on a trip for my boyfriends birthday. We are planning to go to Seattle. I am very excited. A new City to adventure in. I will update you when we go on the trip.

Take time to spend time with your family and friends.

XO,
Kristin Nicole

Summer Term

I am taking a pre algebra class this summer term. Now you have to understand how lost I am. I haven’t taken a math course in at least oh lets see…. 5 years or more =/

So Nervous…

So now I am sitting in class. Very nervous and the professor walks in. Tall & slim with brown thinning hair and glasses. He speaks well, with certainty of what he is teaching. I know now at this point he is going to be a good professor. A bit strict though. We are only graded on 4 tests. If you miss one, you can still pass with an A. He drops the lowest grade at the end of the semester. However, he states that if you miss 2 tests you automatically fail. Now I don’t plan on missing any tests, but you never know what might happen, that you can’t show up. The professor stands, tall and with a stern voice implies that if you’re sick, or if your aunt is in the hospital and you have to take her that these will not be excused excuses to miss a test. I can understand if you have a small cold, more then likely you can still make it in. However, if my mom was in the hospital and I couldn’t make it in, this should be an exception. There should be exceptions. This I did not like about the Professor. I can only hope nothing happens. I can’t afford to miss not one test. He also doesn’t waive grades. If you got a 69 (D) he won’t push it to that one point so that you can get a 70 (C). This is fine with me, I can only hope I do good. Again it’s been 5 years!

I came home that night and started my homework. There were about 3 questions I am still uncertain about. So this Tuesday I have to get to class early so that I can ask him about these 3 questions. I am very nervous, I hate doing bad and I stress easily. So I’m just going to have to really try and focus and do all my homework for practice.

Wish me luck!!!

XO,
Kristin Nicole