Exit Speech

[Maniac Craniac]

So, I'm not welcome here. So, I'm leaving. So, here are my parting words.

You can not expect education from a classroom, you have to expect it from yourself. Education is not something that can be bought, sold, given nor received. It is not a resume nor a framed document hanging on your wall. It is a choice you make every moment of every day of you life. You can choose to be educated, even if you can not choose by what exact means, in, literally, every single moment of your life. You are not a degree. You are not a title. You are not a school. Who you are is how you choose to live.

I came here with no vendetta, no ill motive, no purpose other than to gain and share information while being an encouragement to others. Along the way, I tried InstantCert and... well I'll not finish that sentence. Mind you, I intend to denigrate neither the company nor David. My only exchange with him was when the IC system incorrectly charged me for an extra month and he, promptly, took care of the problem when I brought it to his attention. I never had such great customer service and it is clear that he takes great pride in, and is hands-on with, his product.

I wish for everyone to take a deep look into yourselves. If you feel belittled, demeaned, insulted- if you take it personally when someone makes an open, honest, unfavorable assessment of your school, your source or study methods, ask yourself: what is the origin of those negative feelings? If you are proud of yourself, who you are, what you have accomplished, then there should be no need to defend that which has served as nothing more than a conduit. A disposable, replaceable, forgettable conduit. If you feel strongly that your honor is intact, then there is no need for you to fight another in order to convince that other of it. You have nothing to prove to me nor to anyone but yourself. Prove it to yourself, and let the rest of the anthropic dominoes fall as they may.

Fight not for fighting. Fight for equality. Equality of opportunity, treatment and expression- including the right to have a balanced plurality of perspectives. Do so, however, with tact and discrete reservation.

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.
Wilhelm Stekel

Who you are is how you choose to live. Live well, my dear friends.

[MISin08]

WTF? :confused:

Phillip

[Maniac Craniac]

Will you ever see me again? Most of you know where to find me eeya: I'll come back for the "I'm done." posts and might respond to things written in just this thread, but those of you who have a case of Crania Mania will have to go on without me.

I want to address one last thing since it might be of use to others to read. If you have any questions regarding my journey, feel free to catch me at the other site or say "sent you a PM" in this thread and, well, send me a PM.

After a year and 3000+ posts he is not much closer to getting his BA.

I finished my Associate's degree last year, will be done with my first BA by the end of this summer and am on pace to finish 2 Bachelors degrees by the time I hit my two year aniversary as a member of DegreeInfo. That is not only fast, it is so fast that most people who have never seen this forum would consider it impossible. That is despite the fact that my effort has been, at peak, part time, and that I've at times taken several months off of studying to focus on other, much more important, things.

Many of his peers on this forum who utilized the tools from this forum have already graduated and moved on to their graduate degrees.

There is more to getting a degree than just whatever might happen to be the quickest and easiest. I did just what I set out to do- I spread my expenses over the course of a few years to maximize my tax benefits for education, saving about $5000 than I would have if I had tried to finish within just a single year. It has also given me the time to consider dozens of different options to make sure that I made a final decision that I would not regret later. I am at peace with the decisions that I have made and wouldn't be if I had just decided to speed demon my way to the end (and yet, an associate's degree and two bachelor's degrees within two years seems like a pretty freakin' fast pace to me).

If DI had said to him "Put your time and energy into finishing your BA", he would have his BA by now.

I don't understand what you mean- just about everybody on that forum gave me that exact same advice. No, I would not have my BA by now because for the reasons above (I don't know about you, but $5000 is a lot of money to me...) I would have been, and am on the exact same pace I am on right now.

[burbuja0512]

Ohh Maniac don't go.

I think you're being too sensitive.. Sometimes threads get heated and that happens. I usually try to step out if I'm getting offended or offending someone. (Ha ha unless I am in a really bad mood..) Just don't take it personally and move on to the next topic, then avoid that same topic in the future.


If you do decide to leave, I'll miss you

[rebel100]

Yeah bro,

Just step back, in the end we all share a similiar purpose in being here. You are an active and valuable part of that. I have spent time researching several items that you have led me to. If you go your insights will be missed.

What did I miss anyway?

[cookderosa]

111111111111

[cookderosa]

Will you ever see me again? Most of you know where to find me eeya: I'll come back for the "I'm done." posts and might respond to things written in just this thread, but those of you who have a case of Crania Mania will have to go on without me.

I want to address one last thing since it might be of use to others to read. If you have any questions regarding my journey, feel free to catch me at the other site or say "sent you a PM" in this thread and, well, send me a PM.



I finished my Associate's degree last year, will be done with my first BA by the end of this summer and am on pace to finish 2 Bachelors degrees by the time I hit my two year aniversary as a member of DegreeInfo. That is not only fast, it is so fast that most people who have never seen this forum would consider it impossible. That is despite the fact that my effort has been, at peak, part time, and that I've at times taken several months off of studying to focus on other, much more important, things.



There is more to getting a degree than just whatever might happen to be the quickest and easiest. I did just what I set out to do- I spread my expenses over the course of a few years to maximize my tax benefits for education, saving about $5000 than I would have if I had tried to finish within just a single year. It has also given me the time to consider dozens of different options to make sure that I made a final decision that I would not regret later. I am at peace with the decisions that I have made and wouldn't be if I had just decided to speed demon my way to the end (and yet, an associate's degree and two bachelor's degrees within two years seems like a pretty freakin' fast pace to me).

I don't understand what you mean- just about everybody on that forum gave me that exact same advice. No, I would not have my BA by now because for the reasons above (I don't know about you, but $5000 is a lot of money to me...) I would have been, and am on the exact same pace I am on right now.

These comments were from DegreeXXXX not DegreeForum. These were not from THIS board!? I'm confused. Besides, you don't have 3000 posts "here" you have 3000 posts over "there" so what's this all about?
You're not leaving here, now straighten up young man!

[ryoder]

Don't be so sensitive man. Take some time off from the board if it affects you in a negative way. That's what I did from the other board. My post about ncu sparked a lot of criticism about the school and it got me all fired up for no good reason. I realized that I would help myself and others better on this board for a while. So I bowed out of that other site for a bit.

You have a lot of valuable information to share so don't hold it back if you see a post that someone hasn't answered and you can help out.

Take care of yourself first though. Any criticism can be consumed and fuel your fire to succeed. Good luck.

[MomOfMany]

Yikes. If we are being judged by how fast we are progressing - I am so screwed.

I am pregnant with baby number 10 due any day.
And we have very limited funds, which are dedicated to mostly 2 things:
Maintaining a decent life now.
Investing in our kids' futures.

I hope to get a degree - some day. But my main goal for the near and dear future? That's my kids. So far, after my time here, they have taken one CLEP. About a month after baby is born, one of them is taking the A&I Lit. By the end of next fall semester, I hope another will have had it and two of them will have also taken astronomy and western civ 2.

If I can afford to take the exam too, that is great. However, sometimes the budget just doesn't stretch to cover me too. If I have to choose between myself taking the tests or my sons, then I wait.

We do what we can, when we can, when we are ready for it.

If others have more money (it is cheaper - not free) or time (it is quicker - not immediate) to devote to this, then yea them.

But to denigrate others for not speeding through at some lightening speed?

Well... My friend, you should ignore the ignoramuses.

[Ruddigore]

Don't be so sensitive man. Take some time off from the board if it affects you in a negative way. That's what I did from the other board. My post about ncu sparked a lot of criticism about the school and it got me all fired up for no good reason. I realized that I would help myself and others better on this board for a while. So I bowed out of that other site for a bit.

I second that. The temptation to get overwrought can be huge:



-- But it's not worth it. I find that if you take a step back from the controversies of music, politics, education, et al. -- you just have to laugh!

Regards regardless,
R.