Lakeland College

Incomplete
Posted on 5/17/2007 8:50:52 AM

I'll add one more apology to my string of apologies for not blogging often enough.  You're getting tired of hearing it, I know.  I'm sorry for that, too.  Life situations conspire to keep me from getting things done - maybe you can relate.

I just finished two classes toward my doctorate at UW-Madison.  Never again will I take two classes while I'm working full time and trying to enjoy leisure activities.  Check with me in a few semesters - pain has a short memory and I suspect that I will, indeed, do it again. 

One of my classes - Facilitating Learning for Adults - finished in fine fashion that included me turning in my final project with three seconds to spare.  The second class - Leadership and Coordination of Continuing Education - was a different story.  I agonized over the final project, lost sleep over it, and finally, crawling on my belly, had to request an "Incomplete" grade for the course.  Perhaps you've requested an "Incomplete" for a course before.  I'll be honest, the perfectionist in me has not allowed me to do this ever before - and it was a truly difficult decision for me that I didn't take lightly.  While my professor didn't bat an eye, I groveled and apologized and swore that I would have it completed by the end of May.  He would have been o.k. with me taking three more months. 

The irony of this whole thing is that my project - the one that has caused me to request an Incomplete - will be incomplete when I turn it in.  The project has to do with professional development for staff in the Kellett School.  When I turn it in to erase my Incomplete, it will just be a start in the real life process.  At a broader level, my education is incomplete as is my own professional growth.  Most of my blogs seem to center on some sort of learning experience - some lightbulb that goes on with regard to life lessons.  At the time when I'm getting hung up on one incomplete, I'm realizing that it's all incomplete.  Once again, I probably just need to settle down.