If you have been keeping up, then you already know that I have gone back to school at the University of Georgia to finish my undergraduate degree that I started back in 1989.  You know how people would joke about being on “the 6 year plan” or “the 7 year plan”? I seem to be on “the 32 year, maybe longer, plan”.

I just completed my first class! It was a short summer semester online class called Digital Storytelling. When I first signed up for the class, I thought to myself….hmm, I’ve been writing my own blog for over 5 years now…this will be easy peasy.  NOT.

I had to set up another blog, yes, and that part would have been easy peasy; however, the server that was hosting my account crashed twice and I lost all of my work…twice.  Thankfully, my professor had graded my work prior to the second crash, and she did not require me to re-do it for a third time.  From then on, I wrote everything on a google doc and then copied and pasted.

I learned SO MUCH.  I had NO IDEA what a “Listicle” was! I’m not going to tell you, either. You can look it up.  I also had no idea that anything like “Twitterature” or “Twitter Fiction” even existed!  I learned how to use google slides and make a slide show AND add music!!!! Lucky for me, Mini Me writes and records some of his own music, and he allowed me to use one of his songs-free of charge.

We had to come up with a “Digital Story Project” that we would work on throughout the short semester.  The idea was to use a media that we were not familiar with before taking the class.  I chose Podcasting.

I purchased the Podcasting Plus theme on WordPress.  I bought an external USB microphone.  I learned how to use Audacity and also Garage Band.  My subject would be HAMILCAMP: Stories from the Sidewalk of West 46th Street.  The Middle Child and I still keep in touch with some of the friends we made while sleeping on the sidewalk for Hamilton tickets back in 2016.  You can read about that experience HERE  . I contacted some of them, and they agreed to do podcasts with me about their own experiences in the Cancellation Line.

I obsessed over this project and over the other assignments in the class like I have never obsessed over classwork before.  It was important to me. That is a new thing. I do feel like I have a leg up because I am 50.  I may not have taken these classes before, but I have learned a thing or three in my old age.

We were at the beach when final grades were being posted.  I think I must have checked 15 times.  I think the biggest thing I learned this summer is that it doesn’t matter how old I am.  I can still make the grade.

You can access my podcasting website HERE .

If you check it out, be sure to check out my “About the Author” section.  I’m really proud of that! 😉