Post 31: Farewell Community College, Hello Future

On December 8, I completed the last of my final exams. I treated myself to some Subway food. It's been a few days and all but one of the grades on my college's online system have been posted. Of the six classes I took in this semester, five of them have been A's and I suspect the final one, physical science, will be a low A. My GPA as of now is a 3.94. For those who are unfamiliar with the system, that is a grade out of a possible 4.0. Such a GPA is very hard for the typical person to achieve. What's more, this grade was accomplished while being a distance learner; five of my six classes were done over the Internet, using an online education system known as Angel. I worked on the material whenever I wasn't at work.

My time at the community college (ICC) wasn't the typical two-year experience most have. The standard system is four full-time semesters of fall, spring, fall, and spring. Mine started in summer 2010 and ended fall 2011, with five semesters (two of them part-time summer semesters). I have graduated a semester earlier than my classmates. Now I am done and within the next few months will be receiving the degree I've worked to acquire: Associate's of Science in the major of computer science. I am the first person in my household to have a college degree.

But now there is going to be an 8 month period between now and when I start university. My two choices are either Kansas State University or University of Kansas. The former is much cheaper and has a better technology reputation than the latter, so it is my primary choice. During these next eight months, I have many things I want or need to do.

First and foremost is getting my driver's license. Despite being 20 I have yet to take any testing to be able to drive. This is about to change. My youth leaders purchased a copy of the driving handbook a few months ago and I've read it. Over the next few days I'm going to study up on it to refresh my memory. Then Thursday, three days from now, I will take the test to earn my driver's permit. I expect that the written portion will be of no issue for me, and the driving portion will likewise be easy. Once I have acquired my permit I am going to practice my driving with the help of friends and associates who have offered to assist me. I think I need 50 hours of driving experience to get my full license. Also, I need to find an insurance company. For now I will split the cost with my parents. Eventually I will need to call around and see what kind of company I would like to work with.

On top of that, I need a vehicle. For now I will use my father's truck. To be honest, I don't care what my first vehicle is, as long as it's in decent shape and can get me where I need to go.

Second, I want to get more money. University is an expensive thing and student loans are not very appealing to me. Even though I will inevitably have to take out loans, I would still like to buffer them with money I've worked for. At my current workplace, I have told my managers that I'm free whatever day of the week they need me for. Hopefully that will lead to an increase in hours I'm working. Also, I'd like to use my Internet presence. As it stands I have four active blogs, two inactive blogs, a Web site, three Twitter accounts, and a Facebook page. Certainly these, plus my skills at Web development, could earn me a small supply of income. Not much unless I hit it super big, but better than nothing. I could set up a PayPal account and and register with Google's AdSense program. This would enable me to put ads at least on my blogs and Web site (don't worry, I would keep them non-intrusive, probably along the left side of the screen or maybe at the top). As for Twitter and Facebook, I could do other things as well. Facebook also has an ad system which I could utilize for my blogs.

Alongside those two things, I have other smaller things I've wanted to do.

• Finish learning Java. I couldn't sell my Java textbook back to the college bookstore, so instead I kept it. I would like to learn Java more and this would give me the opportunity to do just that. It's a common language in the world of electronics. 
• Get more traffic to my blogs, particularly my Minecraft blog. I like writing about my life and ideas, but dangit I want to know that people are reading these things and interacting with me. Blogger has a nifty feature that lets me see how many daily visitors my blogs get. The Minecraft blog routinely gets about a dozen per day; "After Adults" get a little less. This blog gets scarcely any. I've begun looking up and joining blog directories, which is why there is now a "Blog Directory Medley" section along the right-hand side.
• Minecraft. I would like to become more creative and accomplish more with that.
• Ministry. After a recent crisis of faith I've decided to temporarily leave the evangelical field in order to rebuild myself. I've neglected Bible reading for a long time, and it's a habit I would like to return to.