Spring "Break"

I know that I haven't exactly kept up my end of the deal about blogging every week this semester, but that is not to say that I haven't documented my experience. In fact, I have a nightly log from everyday that I have been in the classroom.

As my blogging pattern has shown, something big must have happened for me to take the time to post something. That is the case and unfortunately, it is something negative that is still shaking me up pretty bad.

I don't really want to beat around the bush and make this a long drawn out sob story, so here goes. As many of you know I am currently working on my Masters degree in Education. The final hurdle for me to graduate is to pass a set of comprehensive exams, or comps. Comps are comprised of 3 multiple choice tests and one essay test. If you fail, you don't graduate and have an opportunity to take them again during the next semester. Based on this information, you can guess where this is heading.

While I did pass the multiple choice exams, I did not pass the essay portion. While this is pretty hard to bear, it is not exactly unexpected. I honestly didn't expect that I would be able to pass the essay portion, largely because I don't do well when I have to hand-write an essay under a time constraint. This test in particular involved writing a 10-12 page single spaced essay on a legal tablet in 4 hours. In addition, this test for the most part was just regurgitating the textbook from the class.

If this was not a big enough blow to me emotionally, I have also been on Spring Break this past week, which is a sort of two-edged sword. On the positive side, I have not been at school this week and have had a break. The flip side of this issue is that I have been on break which means I had a lot of free time. As many of you know it also meant that I most likely was planning and/or took a trip to Nashville to see my "big brother" and his family, which always drains me emotionally for a variety of reasons.

That being said, I am hoping that I can "reset" again and finish out the rest of my student teaching/semester strong, with less stress and distractions. It is still a pretty big blow to my self-esteem and potential plans, but I know that there is a bigger plan at work than mine.