Yesterday marked exactly one month until I officially go back to school. I am definitely getting a little nervous the closer it gets. It may seem silly to be nervous about going to school, but having been five years since I’ve even taken a class, it does seem pretty daunting.

When I was actually in college, it was just a continuation of years of school, so it wasn’t any sort of big change in studying. And although I always did my best to be a good student and get more than just a “good time” out of college, I also wanted to experience things and to not get too caught up in my grades. I kept up mostly As and Bs, but there was a C or two thrown in there.

This time, I feel very out of practice. There’s a particular academic mindset that you need to be in and I haven’t been there for a while. Even studying for the GRE last year was a big challenge. It’s going to take a lot of discipline to put myself back in that role.

The biggest change is going to be having a full-time job and a family (…oh yah, and needing to go to bed before 1 a.m.) I never have had to juggle this much before, so I think I am most worried about having the time that I need to study and still be able to enjoy time with my husband and friends and keep my house from becoming a disaster area.

I have actually been trying to do some reading and studying over the summer to help me prepare for diving back in. It’s a bit of a process, but I’m hoping that by August 21, I am back into the practice of it. So far, I have enjoyed being a part of the academic world again. I had to go out to campus last week to get my ID card, so I took some time to walk around the campus, so a little reading, and browse through the library.

I really love the feeling of being part of that community. When I first decided to go for my masters, I looked into a bunch of different programs, both on campus and online. While the online classes would be much more conducive to keeping up my day-to-day life, not having to drive downtown and park and walk across campus to get to a class that lasts three hours. But at the same time, I don’t think that I would get the same feelings that I get when I’m actually there. Call me crazy, but it really makes me want to keep learning and studying. Without those feelings, I’m honestly not sure that I would have what it takes to pursue an online degree.

But regardless of that, I have my work cut out for me over the next 30 days. In four weeks from today, I will have my Communications graduate orientation. It’s a day-long program to give us everything we need to know, but only two days later do we actually start class, so it’ll be a big week. That’s why I’m trying to do as much as I can to prepare myself now. And speaking of that… I actually have to hit the books.