A Long Absence

Hey everyone! Glad to be back after one of the hardest years I have ever faced in school and in life. It's good to know that even with the times where you feel like you'll never get out, there are some constants that can keep your focus away from the dark night ahead. First off, a disclosure. On February 12, 2012, I lost one of my driving forces. My father passed away unexpectedly at the age of 56. It happened 22 days before the start of the semester and 26 days before my 30th birthday. I was at a bowling tournament when I got the call. The whirlwind of activity really got to me for some time and it didn't help that with school coming and Dad's passing, I got an assignment change at work that I've yet to become comfortable with. This semester, I had originally signed up for three classes: -Honors Microeconomics with Professor Kone (again) -Fundamentals of Speech Communication with Professor Greco -Profiles of Businesses in NYC with Professor Lipitz I had to drop Microeconomics because I did not feel like I could focus on the subject. My brain kept flying off into other directions, so I had to leave and not let this affect my group mates or my GPA. Fundamentals of Speech Communication with Prof Greco was probably the most profound class I've had in a very long time. We spoke about the history of communication and went through the course materials very quickly (We were finished with the syllabus about three weeks before the end of the semester), so we began group work and experiences in self-disclosure, which is something I tend not to do because of my own neurosis, but it was done in this class. I spoke about how Dad's passing, more specifically the lack of a cause of death, has prevented me from even attempting to move on because there is no closure (even as of the day of this writing, 6/12/12, there is no cause of death). The kinds of things these classmates of mine had dealt with in their lives and the fact that they were still standing, it's nothing short of amazing to see that fire burning so brightly. This made things a bit easier in dealing with my own issues because it really wasn't only me dealing with the death of a loved one. Profiles of Businesses in NYC was a fun class and Professor Lipitz was an animated old man for damn sure. This man knew his stuff, had an amazing background as an educator, and could tell you plenty of amazing and fun stories. I liked his class very much, so I tried to keep up, but it was a lot floating around in my head. His tests were hard because even if you have 4 examples in the essay, it was never enough. Kind of approached this half assed and suffered for that. Grades for the Semester: Fundamentals of Speech Communication - A Profiles of Businesses in NYC - A- New cumulative GPA: 3.94