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Ordinary World
It was summer, and I was living the good life. Staying up until 12:00 am, sleeping in until 12:00 pm. No pesky grades, friends, or responsibilities keeping me from enjoying life, or at least sleeping through it. -
Call to Adventure
Disaster strikes! I dropped one class too many the previous year. Over the summer I'll have to complete an online class consisting of eight "modules", Which is surely just an overly jargonized way of saying "sections." My intuition tells me that is going to be vapid and soul-destroying. -
Refusal of the Call
Even a cursory glance at the website onfirms the worst of my fears. The site was poorly formated, making it nearly impossible to extract any usefull information from it. A glitch occaisionally caused adjacent words to get rammed together, making it even harder to read. Even worse, every word which could possibly be replaced by a more vague term, was. I completed no work that day; Instead I only cried the tears of an adolescent who has been bound by the oppressive adhesive of red tape. -
Meeting of the Mentor
I would never have been able to to progress past this point if not for the guiding hand of my mother. Somehow she convinced me to get back onto the computer and finish reading the first page of material. It's agonizing, but my mother constantly hovering over me I can't escape; I must press on! -
Period: to
Crossing the Threshhold
Unfortunately, I was unable to work over the next two weeks. The first week my "mentor" was preoccupied by planning my uncle's wedding. I got no work done. The week after that I took a trip to Boston, where I managed to avoid doing work most of the time, since the internet connection there was poor. I did manage to complete most of my work there and I commited to do my work from then on. -
tests, allies, and enemies
From then on I faced many formidible foes. Foremost among them was the sheer vacuousness of the online course. It didn't appear to be trying to teach anything in particular. They subjected me to everything from personality tests to college application forms. Luckily I had freinds on the inside. One of the features of the class was an online mesage board. I used it to contact the other classmates to discuss how we were mutually disgusted with the site layout. -
the approach
this small comfort wa short lived. A few days later my mother left to go to a middle school summer camp for an entire week. this meant that I had no one to keep me sitting at the computer. I had to work for an entire week, but there would be no immediate consequences if I did not. obviously it was too much for me. I never once tried to do work that week. I knew that if I didn't finish by next monday I wouldn't be able to go to my weekend retreat to the north. time was running out. -
the ordeal
On friday my mother comes back. She can not contain her anger when she finds out that I have twenty four missing assigments and a grade of sixty. She practically straps me to the chair and for four consecutive days I spend every waking hour doing as many assignments as possible trying to bring my grade up to a point where I would pass. It was agonizing, and it killed my spirit, but after those four days were done I had brought my grade up to an 84.75. I could attend my camp. -
the reward
The next week was pure bliss.I was finally at camp. I met up with old friends, got aquainted with new ones, and most importantly: I didn't have to do any work. -
The Road Back
The week I got back from camp I was in the home stretch. There were still 10 assignments left. It was easier now that I had learned the system but still it was work every day. My mentor encourageed me. Those last projects were challenging because they were hardest of the semester. -
The resurrection
The last week was the hardest in a way because I was tired and I could see the end. I thought I would be done early but the last day came. I worked all day. I missed going to a movie with my family which was disappointing but I finished the course by midnight which was the deadline. -
Return with the Elixir
The real reward from this quest was not the "B" I made in the course but was instead being able to move on to the 10th grade with my peer group. What a relief. It was worth all that grief. And I learned some perserverence too.