In the olden days................

when I started college (San Bernardino Valley College) right out of high school, you were not required to declare a major, as such.  Liberal Arts was the most common major and was used by everyone who didn't have a clue what they wanted to be when they grew up, which was most of us.  I managed to finish a year and a half before following the customs of the day for females and quit school to get a job, get married and have kids.  Yes, in that order!

Today, that time feels like it was on a distant planet a few millennium or so ago.  I took a few television classes but never got back to school or past that feeling of something important left incomplete and thought many times about going back to school to get a degree - still without knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up.

That decision was made for me when I discovered I have a talent for photography and really enjoy taking pictures, especially after I purchased a digital camera.  Wonder of wonders, I could see what I was getting without having to wait for the pictures to be developed and printed.  Now I could tell if I needed to retake that once-in-a-lifetime situation and, better yet, could take several from different angles without worrying about the expense of processing costs.  An advertised course for PhotoShop at Crafton Hills College was just what I wanted so I could make adjustments to my photos.  I registered for the class and realized that I loved learning new techniques and that I really enjoyed learning new things about all kinds of computer work.  One of our assignments required us to go into the programming language to make a small change in the look of our work.  Pandora's box was opened!!!  Fascinated, I registered for a beginning programming class, then another and another.

Now I was hooked on learning more and more about working on and with the computer.  I finally decided that I really ought to talk to a counselor to see how many units I really needed to get my degree.  As an aside, I should say that a counselor friend had told me more than several years ago that all I needed was 10 units.  Well, I had just finished about 12 or so which surely meant that I was getting really close.  HAH!!! and welcome to the modern world of upper education, Cheryl.  First of all, I now had to select a major - Liberal Arts is now for those wanting to be teachers.  Okay, I said, I'll go for Computer Science.  Which emphasis? the counselor asked.  Yeah, right, I thought.  What do I know about this thing called emphasis.  He showed me the list and the only one that I could use to meet a requirement was the PhotoShop class that had started all this was Web Master, so that's what I picked and here I am today, taking more computer classes plus some more general ed classes to meet their new requirements for categories such as "critical thinking" and "the arts".  These are on top of all my original units which the "transcript reviewers" were so kind as to accept towards my new endeavor.

This has been long, but I felt some background would be helpful for you to understand the highs and lows of trying to teach an old dog new tricks with modern inventions.  Yes, I still take pictures and yes, I will be posting some soon.  Now I'm know what I want to be when I grow up - a photographer and a web designer.  They go together very well.