American Heritage 100 is a required class at BYU. If you are a transfer student, no other history class will substitute. You HAVE to take their version of American history. I did horribly when I took it and got my lowest grade ever of a C-. This was also the semester I returned to school after my mission. My formerly BFF roommate suddenly hated me, my job in the Financial Aid Office was temporarily closed and I found myself making ends meet on the swing shift as a janitor in the Wilkinson Center. My dates were lackluster to say the least and nothing seemed to be going right. I had the hardest time trying to mesh the lessons learned from the mission with my living reality which left me depressed and quietly crying myself to sleep pretty much every night.
That poor grade has always been a black mark on my academic career not to mention my transcript. It's always nagged at me and made me feel like perhaps I didn't belong at a prestigious institution like BYU. A couple of years ago my company had a presentation on their tuition reimbursement plan and I got to hear from coworkers who were taking classes part-time from places like the Harvard extension center and even pastry school. The course didn't even have to be related to our job! It just had to be from an accredited university and part of a degree or certificate program. If my company would foot the bill, I thought, why not try retaking that blasted American Heritage course? I had nothing to lose... not even the tuition. So I signed up for it.
I don't know what the hell I was thinking (pardon my French). I signed up for this colossally difficult course (the independent study version is much, much harder than the one offered on campus) while I was working full-time, chasing a toddler and pregnant. To truly succeed in this course I had to read the chapter, re-read it, fully complete the study guide which was many pages long and then write 2-5 essays after a brief multiple choice quiz. I could do one, maybe two chapters a week and I was fried by the time I was done. One benefit of taking it at this time in my life was being IN Boston. Now I really appreciate why it's called "The Cradle of Liberty" from the Boston Tea Party to the Model Constitution to Shay's Rebellion. I learned SO much! Now come the accolades for my sweet so sweet husband.
To help me out, he would take responsibility for Liesel as soon as he was home from work. I shut myself in our bedroom to study and listened to him play with Liesel a couple of rooms away. Brent tirelessly quizzed me to prepare for my lesson submissions and let me summarize chapters to him so I could ingrain them in my own mind. On Thursdays, I stayed at work late to work on my study guides and lesson submissions. The submissions were particularly arduous and each one took a minimum of two hours to complete. When my parents and sister were here over Christmas, Brent cheerfully entertained them while I hunkered down to complete the last of my lesson submissions. He never complained... not once. When I whined about how hard it was, he expressed nothing but faith in me and kept urging me on. He was truly a gem.
The comprehensive final for the course was worth 40% of my grade. I had to review lessons that I'd studied months before when I wasn't plagued with morning sickness and the innate memory loss that comes with pregnancy. Again, Brent quizzed me tirelessly and patiently corrected me. He gave me a hug and a kiss when I went to take the final at the local Sylvan Learning Center and told me I'd done everything I could do. He was right... the results of my final came in today and I got 97% with a 96% for the entire course. I aced it. And I've been grinning like an idiot ever since. Not only will we be able to get reimbursed for the money spent on the course, but I've proven to myself I CAN do it and I AM smart. That may sound ridiculous, but I truly believe some of the biggest obstacles we face are the ones we put in front of ourselves. I've just overcome this one and right now I'm feeling like I can accomplish just about anything.
9 comments:
Huh. I never took American Heritage. I went to Weber State my freshman year, and a history class I took there combined with another history class at BYU fulfilled the requirement.
No worries about the C. Even if you hadn't proved yourself by getting an A, there are many, many BYU students, past and present (and probably future) who are much stupider than you.
Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to go! That gives me hope that if I ever took another college course, I might be able to pass it! I am so proud of you...now go teach the class on campus so we all don't fall asleep...
Woot woot! American Heritage was my lowest grade at BYU too. Its because I am not very good at multiple choice tests. I applaud you for re-taking the course- although I have NO desire to.
I loved that story, Danika! I'm so glad it had a happy ending. Way to go you, and way to go Brent!
p.s. for some strange reason I loved American Heritage and remember doing well. Now Chem 105 AND 106... I could almost echo your sentiments exactly. Should I take the plunge and retake them??? maybe someday... You have inspired me!
That is AWESOME!!! Congratulations Danika. I really apprecatie your story, I needed to read that right now. It goes to show that with a little (well maybe a lot) hard work, we can do anything. Your husband is one of the sweetest guys I know!
i lived in FEAR of AmHtg 100 for 3 years due to watching so many roommates suffer through it. i finally took it a few months before i graduated. it was great! i took it at the slc center with a teacher that was ready to retire during the summer term. we regularly got out early, he gave us extensive study guides, and it was a relaxed environment. i didn't just waltz into the tests. i had to study, but it was a relief to get an A. i often wish, though, that i had taken a year off between high school and college. i think i would have done much better in all of my classes with another year of maturity under my belt.
and i forgot to mention that i think it's awesome you got a redo! i was just thinking the other day about the redos i wish i had--the little ones like heats at swim meets and things like that.
Well, my lowest grade was a D+. I never did read "Things Fall Apart," and was truly more interested in my boy friend than that stupid class. I did return to ace it, and learned to look at the syllabus and "ratemyprofessor.com". I'm just glad I did in my 20's instead of right now!!
Glad you did it, and now you, like Teddy, can say with pride, "I'm smaaaaaht..." Quick! What's 100 + 100? It's 200!
Ah! American Heritage. Good job. It was actually one of my all-time favorite classes. I had Latimer, and my roommates and I all took him at the same time. We simply referred to him as "The Man." After I finished the class (no idea what grade I got, but I can tell you how many late nights I had studying for the tests...) I attended some of the lectures with my brother, who was taking it after his mission. For once, American History was interesting to me. :)
Post a Comment