So we have been doing school for sometime over 4 years now. Its seems really ridiculous to me that we still have 3 years left. You might think that my husband is going into something like medical school or law school. But you would be wrong. He is going into something as simple as engineering. This typically would be a 4 year degree, but for us, it is going to be something like a very daunting 7 years degree! The thing with our situation is that we are trying to do school with a full fledge family. Wife and 3 kids full fledge family. I never thought to blog about this before or even really write about it, because I never thought in a million years it would turn into a 7 years adventure. My husband El is Samoan and comes from a great family! He did super great in highschool and actually spent 2 of the 4 years of high school in Samoa while his parents served a mission over there. How cool is that right! He has a great aptitude for math and thinks like an engineer. How do I know he thinks like an engineer? I grew up with one. My dad in an engineer, and even he himself agrees with this.
El started college at SLCC when we were married and we started doing some generals to get them out of the way. He unfortunately was working full time and doing school part time. Now for anyone who doesn't know what part time school entails, it averages about 1 maybe 2 classes a semester, so to put that in perspective, after a whole years or two full semesters you wont even have completed a 5 classes, which is considered a full semester. So after a year of school, we only had 3 classes under out belt. UGH!!!! So we decided to transfer over to Utah State University in Logan. They had a great program in biological engineering which he was really interested in. Things were going great for the first semester. Then we got hit with the biggest news of our lives! I was pregnant unexpectedly, and not just pregnant, I was pregnant with twins! I just lost my job and insurance (due to downsizing). We were freaking out! We now had no income, no insurance and a high risk pregnancy, which we estimated would cost us about $120 000 out of pocket! So we did what we had to. We dropped out of school after only one semester and headed back to Salt Lake City. El miraculously got his old job back (sadly he hated that job) and so here we were back where we were. He had to take that year off of school to just work full time. 9 months later, he took another semester off just to help me with the kids. It was really hard! A couple months after the boys were born and right when our insurance had finally kicked in, he was blamed for something he did not do and the respect lacking company fired him. We were sure that his terrible supervisor was behind it, and interestingly, a couple months later a supervisor who had worked there for over 5 years was also let go for the same reason, solidifying our belief that that one supervisor was most surely the reason. But non the less, we were again with out job, money, insurance and now also not doing school.
We came to a cross roads. My parents gave us the great idea that that they would "sponsor" us through school so he didn't have to work and he could do school full time with out any worries. We were so excited! The way SLCC worked, we had to redo a lot of the math classes for stupid reasons, and all the classes we took at USU did not transfer over. So we did a year and half of trying to catch up, and finally applied to the U! We are now in the electrical engineering program. We had to do so much catching up because the U does not have a biological engineering program (just a bio engineering. I know they sound the same, but they are actually completely different) So we had to start all over and what felt like before the beginning to start taking the classes he needed as requisites for the electrical engineering program.
El just finished his first semester at the U and had to again drop 2 of the classes he was in because he ended up getting a MRSA infection this semester and was hospitalized. It was so crazy and it sometimes feels so unfair, but I just keep thinking, you know we are all healthy, have no major problems, we have a happy family and we still have the opportunity to do school. So we are starting his second semester at the U in the fall, and we are so excited! We officially have 3 years left including internships, and its the first time in forever that I actually feel like I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.
It is so hard trying to do university when you have a family. I remember going before I was married and how easy it felt compared to this! This is truly a very hard experience, but one that I am sure will strengthen us for the future. It is a completely different experience than I ever thought it would be, but we are growing and learning every day from it. This is why I decided to blog about it and document it, because I feel like it is such a unique experience, and as hard as it has been and Im sure will continue to be, I want to remember these years!
Heres to hoping that we have smooth sailing from here on out!
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