Why People Take SO LONG to Get Started?

[Tedium]

I've been in one college or another since 2007. I wanted to get my BA, MFA, and PhD in English/Creative Writing. It was the only thing that I did well, and I couldn't think of anything more boring than a business degree. I was completely and totally full of myself, like @jsd above. I would get pressured by the head of the department into invite only senior-level courses, get praised for my stories and essays, but still couldn't be bothered to show up to class. I was way too immature to be getting any sort of praise and I had a lot of growing up to do. In hindsight, I was a jerk and I'm surprised anyone even gave me the time of day back then. I was young, dumb, and mean. So many burned bridges and wasted opportunities.

Anyway, I've just been chasing greener pastures ever since. I was always trying to find a way to make the English major thing work. I hopped from school to school, and wasted so, so much time and money. Someone on this forum used to have a line in their signature that said something like, "Don't be fooled into wasting money on trying to hack your degree. You can waste a lot of time and money trying to save time and money." Something to that effect. That was me. I just didn't heed their advice back then.

Then life keeps on happening and I didn't have the discipline to power through low points to accomplish my goals, so there has been a lot of starting and stopping, even as late as my last try at COSC in 2016. Honestly, I stopped thinking about it for a long time because it got me too depressed. I just gave up. My plans had changed and I had failed at my old dream too many times. I got as far as I had in my hospitality career with only my GED, so I figured I would just stop stressing myself out about higher education.

I heard about Pierpont and I figured that was going to be my only last shot at actually having something to show for all my years of blood, sweat, and tears in higher education. It wasn't that useful to me because at the time I couldn't get a transcript for it since I didn't take any classes with them, but at least it was SOMETHING.

Cut to a few months ago, and the GM I took over for was cleaning out her office and found some of my printed transcripts that I accidentally left behind when I was in her office while she was working from home. It was from when I had enrolled at UMPI (I'm a sucker for that green grass, remember?), but two severe hurricanes back-to-back had blown that opportunity away. I took another look at my COSC transcript. I was only two courses away from graduating. I counted up my credits and realized that I didn't have to try and kill myself taking 30 credits in one or two terms. I just had to suck up my pride, write the Provost and go over why I sucked so much the first two times and why I don't suck now. Changing my concentration really helped speed things along and cut out some DSSTs I thought I had to take (thanks for the eagle eye, @dfrecore). And Sophia made the math so much less painful than I thought it would be (big ups to @raycathode for the encouraging words).

I just found out today that the Provost approved my appeal, and they already have most of my transcripts, so it looks like I'll be starting my Capstone May 23rd. As long as the registrar comes up with the same evaluation that we did on this board. I see no reason why she would get something different, but you never know. And I'm not going to let it slow down this focused momentum I've got going on if she does. I'll just pivot and keep on moving. I hope my initial failures can be a cautionary tale for someone out there that might be stumbling down the same path I was. Get this chapter successfully behind you and move on with your life. Don't overthink it, y'all. Just do it.

TL;DR - I was a jerk that was enamored with the idea of being an English major/academic, so I passed up many opportunities along the way in an effort to salvage some kind of imagined prestige. I have since matured and realized that no one really cares, and I should just shut the hell up and finish something I started for once in my life.