Back to school....... nick-of-time

Call it sixth sense, intuition, or whatever; yesterday I dodged a bullet.  A bullet that could be called procrastination.  I registered for my second course from Empire State College in early January 2012.  It is  an online course with 20 or less students from diverse areas of the country and a range of ages pretty evenly divided between male and female.

My previous and first college course since 1975 was also done online @ ESC, but through direct email with the professor plus a couple of initial phone calls.  No use of the college's "Angel" system of communicating with students/professors was utilized.

I kept waiting to hear via email from the college, if not the professor, when the course actually was starting.  I had in my mind that a start date of 1/12/12 was expected.  My visit to angel on January 5th yielded zero info and, until yesterday, I had not revisited.

Holy smokes!!  Yesterday, while twiddling my thumbs at work waiting for the last case to finish up, I thought, "I'll check "Angel" at ESC and see if by chance anything has been posted there," expecting to find, as per my previous experiences, nada.  Oh man, there it was; a welcome from the professor, syllabus, text to be used, and first 3 assignments one of which is an informal essay due Monday next. 

Scurry, scurry, scurry.  Near totally unfamiliar with the use of the "Angel," system I clicked on everything that was clickable and navigated haphazardly around the site until, I think, I've found everything i need to know and do; immediately. 

After supper I logged back on and read some of the other students submissions and commented on them as required in the first assignment.  As well I submitted my short answers to: 1. What is America? What does it Mean to be American?  2. How do you define "the American Dream?" Do you think that Americans, in general, are indeed in pursuit of this ideal?



Now I'm jotting down ideas to use over the weekend when writing  the informal essay addressing My past experiences with American Literature, what led me to select this course and what I expect to gain from the course, and my thoughts on what it means to be an American.

I think I'm current and on track.  Whew!!  Now to move on grab every bit of enjoyment I can from this course and my classmates.
Oh, the course, you ask?  American Literature 1865 to present.  Should be fun.
I ordered the text overnight UPS.  I hope it gets here today..... Yah right, maybe Friday.