GETTING AN ONLINE DEGREE DURING DAD'S ILLNESS
Originally, I started out going to a traditional college, but when my father got sick, I really felt that I needed to be around more to help my mother out. His illness was really taking a toll on her, after all he needed to be taken back and forth for treatments, and he was barely functional after them, so she pretty much had to do everything. This is what cancer does to you. I don't know which is worse the cancer or the treatment for it. Anyway, I made my decision that I was going to leave school and return home to help my mother. Both my parents had really tried to get me to stay at school, but my heart wasn't really in it since I knew that they were going through so much.
My mother took a job during the day, and I took one in the evenings, so that we could rotate taking care of daddy. I was home with him during the day and really found that except for the general caring for him and taking him to treatments, there was a lot of down time where he would be sleeping and I would be just sitting around. It was during that time that I decided to find out about getting my online degree. At first I was afraid that getting a degree online meant that I would have a lesser degree than at a traditional college, but then I learned that an online college degree is just the same, except it actually takes less time and is more condensed of a program. I made the decision to do it, and they even offered me financial aid, which was a big help, especially with dad being ill. I began doing my coursework online, and the flexibility was so great. If dad was having a good day, then I could do my school work online, and when he was having a bad day I could blow it off and just take care of him. Well, I had to stay disciplined, but with the coursework that I had already done, it only took me about a year to get the remainder of the courses completed and got my degree. I am really glad that I did it that way, because just a few months after completing my online degree my father passed. I can't imagine not having been there to help him and mom through this difficult time. If it were not for online college, I would have had to choose a degree or my father, and that would have been no choice at all.