Registering for Classes SOON!


So on Monday I get to register for classes at UTK! I am excited and nervous, but for no tangible reason really. I know I will do well. I know I am going back to school for the right reasons. I know I will not be distracted by "college life" like I was the first time around. I know I will succeed.

I guess what makes me nervous is that by registering for classes my dream and hope will become a reality. Going back to college for my degree will move from the ethereal to the real. In a database somewhere in the sprawling campus there will be a series of ones and zeroes which will translate into a class schedule. Soon after that there will be financial aid. And then the summer will flash by in an instant and suddenly it will be August. I will join the other 27,800+ students there. I will be a Vol, again. I will wear orange on game day. I will get lost on campus. I will feel old. I will feel alive. I will study my ass off. I will write amazing papers and earn excellent grades. I will be the student all professors dream of.

And I will do it all while living with HIV. Yep, there it is again, those dreaded letters. Part of my nervousness stems from being afraid of how physically challenging it will be. The UT-Knoxville campus is quite large, as most state university campuses tend to be. I will be hiking around at a very brisk pace as all of my classes are back-to-back. I will stay up later working on schoolwork. I will probably sleep a bit less. My eating routine will probably be erratic on school days.

Somehow though I will figure out a way to overcome those challenges and make sure I stay energetic enough to do what I need to do. I am 100% sure I am not the first or the last full-time student, part-time worker who attends college while carrying HIV along for the ride. Hell, my lovely virus may even be an asset at some point in my journalistic endeavors. I definitely have a vast experience with which to draw from, if ever my HIV is incorporated into a paper or class discussion or class project.

Being 41 and a returning "non-traditional student", I will have a small leg up on everyone. I will be able to relate my studies to my life experience. Oh and boy do I have tons of life experiences. Addiction, long-term love, divorce, HIV, the death of the person who meant to the most to me. The education I will receive at UTK will supplement my life experience and vice versa. For me I believe it would be impossible to separate the two. Learning something in class will not be theoretical to me. I will not be sitting there pondering how this new knowledge gained will impact my life. I will already be able to see and relate to the coursework, how things fit in the "real world" so often mentioned by professors and instructors. The advantage to being older is that I will be learning for the sake of learning and improvement of myself, as opposed to memorizing facts for a test (though I know I will be doing a lot of that too.)

Mostly, I am excited...feeling trepidation certainly, but excited nonetheless.

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