The Education of Jodi Lea

January 3, 2024 ~ JodiLea

Daily writing prompt

What colleges have you attended?

In California, the University of California system has reasonably priced “Junior Colleges”. These are 2-year colleges for those attempting to earn basic college credits prior to enrolling in a more prestigious 4-year college and those going for certificates and Associate degrees.

I was recently informed that the term: ‘Junior College’ is outdated. The term for them now is ‘Community College’. Whatever you call them, they are the same now as then, if you ask me. Anyway, the fall after high school graduation, I enrolled in Chabot Hayward’s Los Positas College, which was close to my house. My goal was to take basic classes to transfer over to Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO. This was the College my BFF was planning to attend. Since she was a year behind me in school, this gave me a chance to get a job and earn tuition money before moving to Missouri and getting away from home.

SEMO, as we affectionately call it, is a medium-sized school within the sweet little river town of Cape Girardeau. The streets along the river are still cobblestone. I fell in love. This place felt like how college should be. It could have been because my BFF and I were roommates, combined with watching too many movies about such places. Oh, dear. I have digressed into happy memories and gotten off-track. Gee – how unusual for me. HA!

Between my freshman and sophomore years at SEMO, I met my ex-husband on summer break and stayed in California until the wedding. Although not a traditional educational institution, I learned a lot in the next five years. I learned about being a military wife, having a baby, living with in-laws, living overseas, living in a trailer park, living in the desert, and all the on-the-job experience that entailed.

Fast-forward past SEMO, and I am thinking about a Computer Science degree. A lot changes in 20 years. Except college credits. I was thrilled to find out that class credits do not have a statute of limitations on them. All the basics I took in SEMO went toward my degree. Unfortunately, none of those credits involved math. My major was Childhood Development. I did not have to take any of the “ologies**,” for my degree, but I had to start anew with mathematics.

Because I was a mom, who worked full time it took many years to crawl through algebra, geometry, and pre-calculus. I only survived Calculus 1 because I had an awesome teacher, Mr. Adams. Support from scientists at work, and a wonderful 2nd husband and his boys, who knew their way around math.

The end of this story is I graduated with highest honors, from Los Positas College with an Associate of Computer Science Degree. The very same year that my baby graduated from High School. And, No. I am not going to divulge the exact year that was!

** Psychology, Sociology, Biology, et al.

#BlogJanuary

Things I Learned in College

December 25, 2018 ~ JodiLea

But Not in the Classroom…

I learned a lot of stuff I didn’t really need to learn. If for some reason I actually need to know some of that stuff, it’s too late. I’m sure it is forgotten by now. This doesn’t bother me, because I don’t plan to return to college and be forced to remember. I took classes to get my degree, and I did.

It’s the obscure, not mentioned in class, or by professors, knowledge acquired by life’s circumstances & choices that I feel the need to pass along to my young adult readers. So they won’t be as naive and clueless as I was, upon entering college.

This 12-story building is actually four towers (North, South, East & West), they connect in the center. My BFF and I were room mates in North Tower, third floor, room 302. The streetlight closest to the building could be a flashlight shinning from our floor manager’s room. Oh, that reminds me …

If you must ‘moon’ out a dorm window – do it from someone else’s room.
Do not ever, no matter how much they whine and beg, do a guy’s laundry for him. Ever!
Think twice before sliding sideways wearing socks, on a waxed floor in order to pass by a friends room, while looking at them. It only worked for Tom Cruise, in Risky Business and that could have been faked. It did not end well for me.
Ideas you come up with as you drive back to the dorm from a beer bust, are usually not good to act on. Sometimes they could be considered crimes. But those can be hysterically funny. Pee your panties funny.
Coke-cola, or hot cocoa, will remove old bleach stains from ugly green floor tiles.
Barfing into a planter, outside of a Burger King, is humbling.
Do not accept a ride home from a guy you met at a Hoe Down [a.k.a go home with the person you came with]
Don’t date someone that treats you like dirt. No matter how cute they are
Vinyl record albums will not break when thrown from the 12th floor in anger
Good table manners you learned at home are not appreciated by your friends who want to “get to the party already!”
Don’t lean in when you are asked to smell someones ice cream. It’s a trap.
Small town drive-in movies do not show wholesome entertainment.
Frat guys will promise you anything to get you in their room. Then they pout when you really wanted to watch “The Grinch who stole Christmas” on their TV.
Chinese Fire Drills should make a comeback. We all can use more exercise.
Oh, and the most astounding thing of all? I had a 4.0 that year and the internet had not been invented!

TTFN

Things I Hope People DON’T Remember About Me

November 22, 2011November 22, 2011 ~ JodiLea

Deja Vu: Original post from Nov 2010

While pondering topic #11 “what do you most want to be remembered by”, things I did not want people to remember came to mind.

When I was a preschooler I was terrified of butterflies. They flew at me, circled me. They were glorified, day-time moths. There was something evil about them, but no one would take me seriously. My parents were embarrassed and told me I was being stupid.

In Junior High I was a nerd with horrible acne. In High School I was an older nerd with terrible acne. There were no ProActive products around then. My dermatologist could not even help me.

College flashbacks are starting to hit me now – like the time a bunch of us girls went to a party and everyone was hungry and wanted to stop somewhere. I voted not to stop because I was not feeling well and I wanted to go back to the dorm. I was outvoted. While they were inside ordering burgers and fries, I was outside barfing into the decorative planters in front of Burger King.

A different party, where I got blasted because I got dumped by my date to said party that morning because his girlfriend was in town. Surprise! I thought I was his girlfriend. I even did his laundry the night before for him. (Oh man! Did I get a severe talking to by my dorm-mates regarding this uncalled for domestic behavior) I was so out of it, that my friends, who were not ready to leave the party, entrusted a guy we all knew to take me back to the dorm. The poor guy had to practically carry me. Then, I did not have my key to the after hours door to my dorm – so I could not get in. He had his key to the boys dorm. Risking expulsion, he snuck me through the boys dorm to get me to the main entrance of girls dorm, where a gal heard him banging on the door and let me in. I wish I could remember my knight in shinning armors name.

Or how about the time my (I thought) new boyfriend took me on a camping trip. I was naive and figured we would camp under the stars, float the river on canoes, snuggle by the campfire. He had other plans that I messed up. During the entire float trip the next day he treated me like crap. Made me do all the paddling, saying (repeatedly and loudly) that virgins “needed to be good for something”. Then the jerk steers us off the main river and we broadsided a fallen log and lost the canoe. No one in our group of friends were around to hear us call for help. The water was rushing so fast it was hard to hang on. We dared not let go and swim under the log either, for there was debris and God knows what under the water.

We must have hung on for dear life over 20 minutes before a river patrol found us and pulled us to safety. Waterlogged and bruised I spent the second worse night of my life sleeping in the jerk’s car. Did I mention he was too cheap to rent a tent? Some camping trip.

My roommate was thrilled when he dumped me. She had always hated him, suspecting he was a jerk. (Yeah – He did the dumping. I don’t know where my brain was. I even wrote love poems to the guy the week before. Gag!) I wonder what he is doing now.

These are just a small sampling of incredibly stupid moments in my life. The scary thing is – there are probably some more to come. I hope I can keep my granddaughters from finding out most of them…

♥