(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Hi! I'm baaack. Yes I graduated! (part 1) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-07-25 You may not know me. I’ve been a long time gone. And up until these past 6 days I hadn’t posted a diary since 2017. With this diary I’ve now posted 3. The first one was a vent and rant. I had to get it out of my system. The second one hit both the recommended and trending groups, but I got dinged cuz I used a word to describe Trump followers that begins with an M and ends with a T, not knowing it was now verboten. Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa I stopped commenting about that time too only to reemerge in 2023 to make one comment about Trump the sexual predator. Some of you “oldsters” may remember/recognize me (Like cultureJammer ) I have been hanging around Facebook, having many friends from Dailykos. I was and probably still am devastated when Mnemosyne died. I shared many things with her over FB and still catch myself clicking to share more with her. Leaned about OPOL death too. Many favorite friends made through DKos are gone. So what have I been doing ? I did go and get my pesky degree finished. A major in History and a minor in Political Science. What did I learn? That when you’re functionally blind in one eye, you get the same disabled student benefits as you would have if you had been diagnosed with dyslexia — but weren’t because you were in and out of K-12 before most people even knew about it (and testing for it as an adult is kinda of pricey.) That there is such a thing as dyscalculia , and I have it. Which is the reason I couldn’t continue in pre-med back in 1981. No one knew about that either. This time it took my astronomy professor who asked me to speak to the Mathematics Department Chair. Which I did and he directed me to a math professor who gave up a lot his personal time to tutor me so that I could finish Algebra 2, Geometry, Trigonometry and Pre-Calc. I made a promise to him that I would go back and finish Calculus, but I haven’t yet. (He knows, we are now friends on FB) He wouldn’t take any money for his time, but I found out we are both board gamers. So I gave him games. , and I have it. Which is the reason I couldn’t continue in pre-med back in 1981. No one knew about that either. This time it took my astronomy professor who asked me to speak to the Mathematics Department Chair. Which I did and he directed me to a math professor who gave up a lot his personal time to tutor me so that I could finish Algebra 2, Geometry, Trigonometry and Pre-Calc. I made a promise to him that I would go back and finish Calculus, but I haven’t yet. (He knows, we are now friends on FB) He wouldn’t take any money for his time, but I found out we are both board gamers. So I gave him games. That it’s kind of neat when more than two English professors, and a few science professors want you to switch from your major, which was history, to their departments. One of my English profs said she wouldn’t rest until I was an English major. I don’t know if she’s a zombie by now. Writing your class notes in cursive means you can’t loan them to someone who was absent, because kids today can’t read it. Writing in cursive on your exams ensures no one will copy off you. Not learning cursive in schools means that kids can’t read their grandparents letters or diaries, etc. I’m glad some schools are changing this now. That prior to working hard to get said degree, my Dunning-Kruger on this site was top left. (Which was not why I stayed away). And that most of my opinions, no one really needs to hear. (which is one reason I did stay away — I had nothing to say) At my 4 year alma mater (I also graduated from a community college) getting a degree in History is intense and rather difficult. One class I loved was on the women of Nantucket where we learned how research. Since Nantucket was a whaling community and most of the men on the island were gone, the women had more freedom and control over their own lives than their sisters on the main land. Nantucket was also more diverse in the 1800 and early 1900s than it is today. Though to be in the library (Nantucket Atheneum) where Fredrick Douglass first spoke*, and where America’s first female astronomer, Maria Mitchell, worked as a librarian for over 20 years. Was humbling. In fact just walking through Nantucket you’ll recognize family names of women who were very influential in America’s suffrage movement. We spent two weeks on the island researching, then a week or two back home writing our papers, before handing them in. We also had two students who were from other social science departments using the class to get a requirement done. They reported that the class was very tough and they wouldn’t be changing their major. We were rather used to it. One of my classes was on the history of the Vietnam War, and we had to read books from both sides of the aisle, and then make our interpretations to the causes, etc. My professor was David Hunt. I say this to counter what the right says about “liberal” indoctrination of many public universities. It may just be that the private college where Tucker Carlson got his degree in history was just not rigorous enough. I can also tell you from personal experience in Nantucket NOT to ride over actual cobble stones on a Vespa like scooter — which was my mode of transpiration in Nantucket as my legs were already beginning to fail. You may not have kidneys afterward. But that’s a subject for another dairy as I have to get ready to go to wound care . . . does Kosability need more diaries? LOL When I come home the pain will be so bad that I’ll have to knock myself out for a day or two and I wanted to get this out. Covid axed my graduation. I do plan on getting a master’s and doctorate and already have my topics of research. *= Contrary to the Time article, the atheneum is not rickety (literary license only goes so far) and the stage where Frederick Douglass spoke is on the upper most floor. Also in another class we read his narrative. I had to put it down several times to gather myself to get through it. Maybe others didn’t have to, but I did. I have used that when conservatives invoke his name to dismiss slavery to ask them if they’ve read it. I have yet to meet one who has. I recommend you read it too. (Also MLK’s writings when they assert he didn’t believe this or that . . . “have you read his works?”) [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/25/2257838/-Hi-I-m-baaack-Yes-I-graduated-part-1?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/