UNH and Other Things

Hi, lovelies!  Today is another hot day; less humid, but still hot.  My muscles are aching all over and I can’t figure out if it’s because of the heat or because I haven’t really moved around much due to the fact that it’s so hot out.  It’s probably both.  I start school in a few weeks and I’m excited to see what my classes are like.  This semester I have American Sign Language (ASL), my journalism course Writing and Reporting the News I, Philosophy and Feminism, and Honors: Race Matters, Money Moves.  At UNH, ASL isn’t accepted as a foreign language for English majors and most of the College of Liberal Arts, so if you want ASL for your foreign language credit, you have to petition it to the Dean.  I think that it is silly that ASL doesn’t count as a foreign language because although it is the English language, it’s a different way of speaking it.  ASL counts for that credit in other colleges at UNH, but not for COLA.  I think it’s unfair, but I don’t make the rules, I just have to follow them.

I have a confession, I was iffy about going to UNH, but when I didn’t have another choice, I went with it.  The second day of my senior year of high school I became extremely ill and was admitted into Boston Children’s Hospital for a month.  While I was there, it was discovered that the reason why I was so sick was because I had a bowel obstruction.  In short, the bowel obstruction I experienced was scar tissue from a surgery I had when I was three months old wrapped around my small intestine on both sides and clamped it off.  Basically, nothing was going in and nothing was coming out.  They drained the fluid (seven liters) from my stomach and that was supposed to be it.  Until a week later the incision came apart and everything started going wrong again.  I had a second surgery and came out with an ostomy and a PICC line.  An ostomy, at least the one I had was they gave my colon a rest and put a bag over the exposed intestine.  Everything I ate came right out and my medication I take for my CMS wasn’t getting absorbed into my system so my muscles didn’t work for months.  Anyway, the point of me telling you all this is because I missed three-quarters of my senior year and came back for the last.  I couldn’t apply to many colleges because I missed so much school so my only options were UNH or Great Bay Community College.

I honestly didn’t think I would get into UNH.  The night I got my acceptance letter, I was beyond thrilled and shocked, I could not believe it.  It took me a while to accept the fact that I couldn’t even apply to the other schools I wanted to, but I love UNH.  It has an incredible journalism program and I could not be happier.  UNH has an amazing disability support.  What I use the assistance for is using the access van to get to classes that are too far for me to walk and for accommodations in the classroom.  I don’t need too many accommodations, just the use of electronics for notetaking, my phone to assist with communicating, and extended time with exams.  The disability services at UNH are super helpful and easy to contact.

I don’t know where the post went, but hey, y’all learned something, I hope.  Thank you for reading and don’t forget to drop questions in the comments!  Stay lovely!