Don't Give Up the Ship!

I was just reflecting back on when I actually took real action to get this drive toward X-ray school began. In the Fall of 2009, I was pretty ill from some mysterious virus that got into my central nervous system. By the end of November, I had taken a sick leave from work, which they did not like, since we were always short on engineers in the first place. My sick leave lasted six weeks, before they decided to replace me permanently.

But I had a feeling that they would let me go, because that's the kind of business-minded imbeciles my company was made of. Realizing my probable outcome, rather than having to sit around, feeling sorry for myself, looking for a job, I took preemptive measures by enrolling in some science classes. Yup, and sure enough, the ax came down on me.

But right from the start, it wasn't an easy road. By the time I had realized the fate with my employer and had made the decision to move towards a new career, the Spring semesters were going to in less than two weeks! I had to review and scrutinize all the prerequisites of all the local rad tech programs in my area and cook up a plan of execution, if I was to complete all my course work before the end of the calendar year! It was going to be tight, but it could be done.

After checking 4-5 times a day on their registration website, I was finally able to enroll at Merritt College, in Oakland, for an anatomy and a chemistry class- horrible time slots, but at least I was in! I got on the wait list for an anatomy class at the community college that's just around the block from my house, but when I sat in on the first day of class, there were thirty other students waiting to get in. I had NO chance of enrolling in that class. Leading up to the first day of instruction, I kept checking on the Merritt registration page, sometimes checking up to ten times per day. As the first day of class got closer and closer, sure enough, students began dropping their classes and shuffling their schedules. With much luck, I was able to massage my schedule to exactly the way I wanted it, but it took an immense amount of effort!!

The struggle to get my Summer schedule was no different. As I was becoming more familiar with what each rad school wanted, I was adding more classes to my list of prerequisites. I suddenly decided that I didn't feel like taking five math placement tests (to apply for five different schools) with questions ranging through to calculus. I had already been through the business calculus and the math calculus series, but that was over ten years ago! I figured it would just be easier to take a bonehead algebra 2 class and get my A. I found the math class I needed at a different JC, but it was like pulling teeth to get the instructor to email me back to let me into her class! At that same school, I found a medical terminology class that I figured would help my chances for applying, but the same went for getting into that class- it was so hard to get the prof to admit me into her class!! After a couple of weeks of desperately trying to email these instructors, I got my classes!!

The final semester was the easiest to enroll in. The only class I had issues with was trying to get into a physics class- no class fit my schedule. I was finally able to find an online class that the instructor let me in to.

By the end of December, I had all the classes I needed to apply to the five X-ray programs I wanted to apply to. It was tough trying to get all the classes, but if I wanted to increase my chances of getting into a school, it had to be done! With a lot of studying, worrying and stress, I was able to get straight A's for that entire year.
But if I had let the first signs of difficultly stop me at the beginning of the year, there's no way I would be where I am right now. If you want something badly, don't take no for an answer! Just be persistent and keep your eye on the goal and you can make it happen!!