Today Benny took the professional engineering license exam (is that what's it's called, Benny?). He has been preparing for months to take this exam and but before that he spent months working on his study schedule for the testing, coursework and online classes he would take to prepare for this test. In a nutshell, Benny's nose has been in a book (not a good book like 100 Years of Solitude, which I recently read and recommend to all to read), but a book filled with numbers and problems that need solutions. I believe they are called problem sets. Is that right, Benny?
For what seems like forever Benny's day has been this routine: get up, go to work, come home, eat and study. Fall asleep while studying. Come to bed. Sleep. Repeat.
My day is this routine: get up, get Olivia ready, go to work, make dinner, feed Olivia, feed Benny, feed myself, wash dishes, laugh, chuckle, shake my head, get Olivia's bag ready for the next day, read a book, wonder when Benny is coming to bed, fall asleep. Repeat.
The laughing and shaking of my head usually happened when Benny was studying using an online prep class through the University of Illinois. The professor would be lecturing about different sample questions and how to solve them (is that right, Benny?) and I would be laughing because as Benny was focused, deep in thought and making notes on graph paper, I honestly thought the guy was speaking French. I understood nothing about what he was saying. I had no connection points and was no help to Benny in this process. In fact I was more of a distraction. It reminded me of our old days at Iowa State.
When I met Benny he was a hard-working engineering student, who would focused at all hours of the night and had never missed a class. Not one class. He talked a lot about problem sets. (I still think this is a fancy word for word problems.)
I, on the other hand, was an average student who looked for every excuse not to attend class. And I had zero math since algebra II when I was a junior in high school. Math is French to me.
So the book smart person in this relationship took a daylong exam today and (hopefully!) passed it. He won't find out the results until July. Boo. But if he passes it, he can put two important letters behind his name (P.E.) and I can become a welcome distraction again. Just like the old days.
5 comments:
Well I think you've just given me a peak into my future, minus all the baby things! Jason will be taking his PE this fall (I think), since he's still on his Haitian vacation. I hope he did well, I'm sure the waiting is going to just stink but hopefully it will pass quickly, but not too quickly, you know what I mean!
Those distractions were welcome then, and they are more than welcome now. How could be we where we are at now without those distractions then? I'm thankful she was persistent.
Let's just home that come June I get a letter saying I passed. Otherwise it's back to focusing on my problem sets until October.
Ah, congrats Benny on having that beast behind you! Whoop Whoop!
I had to laugh at this. Michelle's schedules sounds like mine. Justin's schedule is much like Benny's, only replace the studying with watching TV. I, too, have had no math since calculus my senior year of high school (oh, there was that DREDDED stats class I took at DMACC and xfered to ISU and just squeaked by, thankfully the grade did not xfer) and Justin always laughs when I need paper to add, subtract and multiply.
I am well aware of the PE exam as people took it constantly at the city. CONGRATS to Benny. I hear it's a bear, but all of the ones I've met that have taken it, have passed it if they studied so I'm sure Benny will get those new letters to add to his name :)
This sounds kind of like our house now with Bob back in school...except it is Taz and not a real baby. LOL we are always get in trouble and kicked out of the house for making too much noise! (Mostly Taz's fault)OR I think of all kinds of questions to ask while Bob is studying...the questions NEVER seem to pop into my head at any other time!
Post a Comment