Update: College is Legit!

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Hi everyone!

I am happy that I have not waited nearly four months to do a post! I just got home from my full day of Monday classes, and OMG! I should have gotten more sleep LOL!!

All I will say (without revealing too much of my actual schedule) is that getting up at 7 AM and listening to lectures until nearly 10 PM is going to take some practice. I am going to need to find the happy medium on keeping alert enough to drive home. Normally, I am not out after dark, and I got a little sleepy on my way home because the heat was up. I made it though 🤗

Before I start…oh wait. I already started. 🤣

So, before I continue, let me just say that I am not complaining about my classes. I really enjoy this semester (besides the Keyboarding 2 still). Legit is good! It means that I am being challenged, which sometimes is rare for me. I don’t mean that to “toot my own horn”, it’s just the fact of my experience throughout life. School was always so easy for me. Previous college classes were super easy for me. The only subjects that I struggled with were in subjects that I hated, like Statistics and Biology.

My takeaway is that I give these professors big…actually, HUGE…kudos for working all day, going to court, etc., and then giving me a piece of their time to teach me what they do. The way I think about things has already been enhanced (not altered) when thinking about all things concerning law, democracy, constitutional rights, and human rights. It’s a different way to see the values involved in the paralegal profession along with the integrity someone has to have to be a paralegal or legal assistant. Even the office assistants that sit at the front desk get my respect.

With my eyes struggling to look at anymore words tonight, I will close this post for now. This one may get an update after update. It will be good to see the progress on this post.

In community,

Amy

Spring 2023 Classes

Hi everyone! My Spring 2023 semester will begin on January 17, and it will run until May 24. I had hoped to catch up on here more before the next one started, but life happens. This semester is going to be nose-in-the-book the entire semester. I will try to come up for air when I need the break.

Here are my classes (in no particular order):

I am excited for the majority of those classes, especially the legal research and the civil procedures. I am also stoked to take the law class with one of my favorite instructors from the Fall. The bottom two classes are needed for my Pathway to Law program, and the other three are focused within the paralegal degree.

Instructors should realize that first impressions matter from the students that are accessing the material ahead of time. The reason I say this is because of the first class on the list… He is going to have to work hard at gaining my trust and respect because right now…I’m a bit ticked off.

The reason that I am not excited about the Keyboarding one because of the rules he sets forth seem to be an invasion of privacy and resemble being treated like an 8th grader. I am stoked to learn the advanced features of Word, but I will have to see how him and I get along after the first class. The first impression against him is negative for me after viewing the syllabus and supporting documents.

For example, I buy all my books for school through VitalSource because of the features that accompany the books. So, my tablet will be the main source of my textbook for that class. Sometimes I bring the Fire, and sometimes I bring my laptop. I am pre-law. I have a lot of stuff I don’t want to close out, and I have all my books open to where I left off.

His rule is that every Tuesday when I come to class that I have to bring my tablet up to him for an inspection to gain his approval to use it. Not once…but EACH class period. Then he says my brightness has to be high enough for him to see it when he walks by, and I am only allowed one tab to be open when he inspects it.

It feels juvenile to me, and I am not comfortable with my device being inspected by someone like that. I may have to visit him before or after class to go over what I feel is acceptable of my devices.

Am I being petty, or is it the career path that I am on that thinks this is a huge invasion of privacy?

As a 46 yo woman, I am not going to be snapping or tweeting while I am in class. I am not going to be going live on IG, and I would be bringing my devices to class to work on work in his class. It makes me wonder if anyone else has freaked out about his rules, or if I am just a pain in the ass lol.

In Community,

Amy

Final Grades are In!

New Books and an Update

Image Credit: Quote Fancy

Hi Friends! I have been in scramble mode while getting ready for my next semester to start and getting things in order at home with the upcoming surgery on my wrist and elbow on the 18th. With that planning and scrambling came a new book list from one of my classes, and so I will be adding them to my reading list on my home page that I have pinned up.

Tomorrow will be another full day, but I wanted to check in and let you guys know that I am thinking of you. School (even in the off-time) is taking a bunch of my time along with job interviews and now my surgery stepping in to take up some unplanned time. I will find out by the 17th what time my surgery arrival time will be for the 18th. I had to get blood taken last week, and this week I have been reorganizing my room before I have to rest my elbow and wrist. The doctor is fixing the carpal tunnel and cubital tunnel syndrome in my right (dominant) arm because the nerves are compressed. The tricky part is that I start classes on Monday with surgery on Thursday. I am happy for technology and talk to text options (haha!). I do hope that the first week will be more reading than typing. I am going to use my phone to record the lectures (if allowed). If it’s not hard for me then I worry usually, so it’s going according to plan I suppose. Hence the image used for this post. I want my path to lead somewhere. I am metaphorically raising my glass to the welcoming of the obstacle to make me stronger. Here Here!

Also, I would like to invite you all to leave me book recommendations as well. I am trying to get better about reading, building my professional and personal library, and expanding my knowledge of things that are relevant to the career and life I want to live. Even if your views do not align with mine, I would love to read the opposing sides to the stances that I take. It’s important to see the grass on both sides of the fence. That’s my view of opposing views anyway 😄 It makes for a good debate and great conversations.

In Community,

Amy

Checking In & Updates

Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed the few posts that I shared and wrote this week so far. I am hoping to be more active and write up some good blog posts for you all to enjoy in the next few weeks. I’m due for a check-in with you all, so here we go.

I finished my Summer 2022 session with a 4.0 GPA in my Fed Gov and ConLaw classes.

My Bragging Rights 😀

My next semester starts on August 15, 2022 with five more classes.

• Business Communications

• Black Ethnic Studies

• Legal Terminology

• Introduction to Paralegalism

• Sociology of Deviance

Lastly, I got a little bit of a wrench thrown into my first few weeks of classes yesterday, but it is going to be okay. I have to have surgery on my right wrist and elbow on August 18. I don’t think it will impede my progress too much, but it’s definitely going to slow me down in typing and writing, since that is my dominant hand…

I do have a job interview with Dept. of Corrections on July 29, and I am hoping that I will be able to get free of being on disability soon if my body will cooperate LOL.

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

In Community,

Amy

Holy s__t, Batman…

Hi everyone! Here I am! Sorry I have been MIA! My schoolwork is literally running me from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed most days. My POLS 005 class is doing five chapters at a time, which consists of a study guide for each chapter, a discussion comment for each chapter, and a discussion response (including references in both initial and response) for every freakin’ chapter.

Now, on June 13th, my ConLaw class opened, so I am starting the coursework on it today (along with doing my 2nd exam study guide, so I can complete the exam in my fed gov class by Thursday and Friday). Which brings me back to “Holy shit, Batman!”

My ConLaw class is set up as three chapters at a time, so between now and the time we leave for Vegas on the 24th that I have 6 chapters worth of work to complete in order to enjoy my vacation.

Here let me demonstrate what that looks like when things are not crossed out like in the picture above. 🤣😂😲🤯 The green is ConLaw and the purple is Fed Gov:

So, again I say, “Holy shit, Batman! 26 assignments and a reflection paper that is not listed there…

Wish me luck!

Amy

“Tyranny of the Majority” ~ An Analysis

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Tonight was a reflective night while reading my textbook for my college course, and even more after listening to the lecture from my professor. In the lecture, the entrance of the phrase “tyranny of the majority” comes front and center when speaking about the French theorist named Montesquieu and again with James Madison’s essay called Federalist #10.

I am going to make an effort to read all of those essays that were written, as they are in my library, but this tyrannical phrase feels very relevant and important to discuss further in a reflection of current times. The separation of powers that both Montesquieu and Madison theorize about are the same in some ways and very different in others.

(Bear with me…I will elaborate further in a moment.)

Power is what runs the world. Power is also what we fought against when gaining independence away from the Crown’s monarchy in the 18th century when the American Revolution took us to the Declaration of Independence.

Which takes me back to Montesquieu…

As the creator of the separation of powers ideology, Montesquieu had a great theory, but it fell a little short. He argued that the government knew how best to care for its people, and that the size of government was the key to success of delegating power.

Madison’s idea of power different, but still had the same kind of theory. The difference was that size didn’t matter but the interests on the table were key to allocating power between the central government and the states.

Federalism was the result of the compromise between the Federalists and Antifederalists to keep from “tyranny of the majority”. Madison and Montesquieu knew that there would be come to be greed and selfishness in the competition of power, so regardless of who was right, the key was to stop a coup, which we failed to do with the election of one very orange man.

Each of the men had conflicting views on how the tyranny would come into play in our history and futures, but the similarity is that power was paramount to democracy and had to be separated.

These theories from two men became a reality on January 6, 2021 in the attacks on the U.S. Capitol. Our three branches of government were designed to work together and for each branch to practice checks and balances. When one maniac gets too much power, it’s detriment for the nation. These reasons are why the Articles of Confederation were scrapped and why the Constitution took its place…to fix a weak, unilateral government that was under the mercy of the state’s contributions of tax monies to survive.

I would love to hear any feedback on my interpretation and have a good discussion about this topic.

In community,

Amy

Coursework Update

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Hi everyone! I hope your weekend is going well.

First, I want to thank all of you who follow me on here and follow my progress. I appreciate all of you who take the time to read my words, and I love the interaction.

Next, I want to apologize if I am hit and miss this month, and I am doing it in advance due to not knowing how things will go once this summer session starts. I have two classes in the Summer 2022 semester, and they are both compressed courses. The first one, Federal State Local Government starts on May 31st and ends June 24th, and my Constitutional Law course starts on June 13th and ends July 21.

This first course will be very time consuming, as I have over 600 pages to read in less than a month. The assignment load is pretty heavy as well, so I have tried to start early.

The second course’s layout and workload is unknown until the instructor grants access to the materials. I will keep you all posted on that.

As I complete work in the classes, I will be posting what I am learning and share with all of you. These two classes are hugely in my wheelhouse, and I look forward to a good semester. I do worry about my time management skills though. We’ll see how it goes 🙂

In community,

Amy

Biliary Colic… and stuff

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When I went on vacation with my sister at the beginning of April, I had a rough first night from a gallbladder attack. Well, it came creeping back again yesterday, but it was worst than the first time. I have been down all day today and most of yesterday. I think it’s time I went to get it checked out.

Biliary colic comes when you are having problems with your gallbladder duct that connects to your pancreas. It’s like cholecystitis and pancreatitis in one stomp of your whole body. It hurts under your rip, radiates to your back and to the area in between your shoulder blades.

It was no fun, but I am alive and kicking. I am still very sore in my abdomen and sometimes in my back. Ibuprofen is my best friend right now.

On the plus side, I have gotten into one of my classes early, and the instructor provided me with the text in a .pdf to save me some money. I was wrong about the time frame of the course, but I think it will be okay. This course is a whole 620+ pages, study guides, three exams, and discussion posts from May 31 to June 24.

Wish me luck! 🤞

My Day is Good

Degree progress
Image by Amy Harvey

I am so excited this morning, and I wanted to share my joy with you. Above is a screenshot of my degree progress. My college finally applied all my transfer courses to my degree program, and I am sitting at a 3.76 GPA and 72% completion.

I had checked it yesterday, and the transfer classes were not updated. This made my day!

In Community,

Amy

It’s Official

I am so excited today! I have good things happening. This morning I was able to register for my Summer 2022 term and Fall 2022 term for my Paralegal AS degree at College of the Sequoias.

Here are my classes:

My Courses

My start date for Summer 2022 is on June 13th! Super exciting!

That’s not all though 🙂 I have a final interview today for a local job. I don’t want to put where for privacy issues, but I have been interviewing for an Administrative Assistant position with one of the city offices.

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Wish Me Luck! 🙂

xoxo, Amy

Paralegal Degree Here I Come

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Today I had an appointment with my guidance counselor to set me up for my paralegal classes. It went so great!

I have all of my general education complete with my transfer degree, so the only classes I have to take are the ones for my paralegal program and a few business classes.

I am so excited to start this journey! I start in Summer 2022 with Constitutional Law, so get ready for some good posts about that and my progress in my courses.

I will be done with all of my classes in a little over a year!

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