All A's

Yeah....that's me I'm talking about!

Yesterday I took my first big biology test. It covered the first four chapters and included the terminology of anatomy and physiology, cells, tissues and the integumentary system. It was 28 pages of notes and two labs. 150 questions. I studied my butt off and thought I would do well.

However, that test was HARD because of the way things were worded. After I took it I knew I had passed but wasn't sure I had gotten the A I so desperately wanted. I thought I would be lucky to have a C.

The grades have now been posted online in their entirety and I made a drumroll please............. 94 on the test, got all my points except one on the labs and homework and I currently have the highest average in the class, which is a 99!

I feel like doing back flips!!

I am doing very well in speech class. I have all of my points there and aced a quiz yesterday. I don't know the average but I know I have an A. Every day the instructor, who is an extremely liberal Democrat, and I have a discussion about politics. We're both junkies and we both enjoy batting the latest political news back and forth. He also likes to discuss very controversial topics with the whole class and I just adore that. Most of the people in class are just out of high school and have no life experience. I like to see them shocked and their beliefs challenged. Two of the best topics so far have been religion and homosexuality. During the discussion about homosexuality one little girl who just graduated high school was spouting off incredibly hateful and ignorant shit about gays. I mean serious self-righteous indignation bullshit. "Oh it's a sin, an abomination, a choice cause God wouldn't make anyone be born gay." She mentioned that she had a two year old child. I thought but didn't say..."Well fornication is a sin and having a bastard young'un is a sin...so where is your righteous indignation for yourself and your bastard child? Doesn't the bible say that all sins are equal and that no sin is worse than any other sin?" Anyway it is a fun class and I know some students leave fuming after nearly every class.

English 101 is awesome. On Tuesday we had to turn in three introductory paragraphs about the subject we picked to write on. I chose Troy King because he has provided such an abundance of material to write about in his 6 glorious years in office. After I read my first paragraph in class my instructor said "EXCELLENT!" She told us at the beginning of the term that she was going to keep us in a tight box until we learned the basics and would try and let us get out of that box some as the term progressed. After she read my paragraph she said I was already waaaaaay outside the box.

Last week my English instructor commented on how well laid out my arguments were for the article in the Talladega Daily Home The Marijuana Debate. I told her that I have been writing for a few years and that I would like to send her some of my stuff. She said she would love to read it. So, I sent her The Great Prison Panty Rebellion of Alabama. I was a little scared of what she might think....thought she might look at me funny in class. However, I had nothing to worry about. After she read it she told me in front of the whole class that she LOVED it and more importantly she said, "I've spent 38 years of my life trying to teach people to write like that." To me that is a HUGE compliment.

I am really enjoying the college experience. A weird thing is happening though. In every class someone asks me for help. Now, they don't know what my grades are. They know that I am involved in politics, promote drug policy reform and that I ran for Governor in 2006. It never fails that before English class someone will ask me to read their paper and make suggestions. Same thing in speech class and even in biology. I'm not sure what it is that draws people to me. Maybe they see me as an authority figure...which is really weird because I hate authority figures. Or maybe it is something else entirely. Whatever it is it's neat.

I am so very happy that I enrolled in college. Should have done it years ago.