I really enjoyed my final few months as a college student. Allegheny College, where I attended, operated on a trimester system at that time. That meant that we had three sessions of 10 weeks. Each time, we took three classes.

Thanks to some AP credits from high school, I had enough credits after the second trimester of my senior year to graduate. The thought of leaving early, however, never crossed my mind.

Sure, I wanted to enjoy my social life a little, but I made sure to have an enjoyable classroom experience as well.

I managed to schedule two classes back to back in the afternoon on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I didn’t have to wake up before noon, and I had one of my favorite professors for both classes.

He wanted to spend Friday afternoon in the classroom about as much as we did, so he extended the class time for the later session on the other two days so we didn’t need Friday afternoon at all. The earlier class met as usual.

So I had an all-afternoon schedule, got out early on Fridays and studied two really enjoyable topics. What a great memory.

All of this comes to mind because, almost 20 years later, I have made the decision to return to the classroom. I have a funny feeling things won’t be the same in graduate school.

If all goes well, I will enter a master’s degree in writing program in the fall. I’m sure some readers will enjoy knowing that I am finally going to learn how to write. It’s about time, I think.

I had looked at one or two other programs at first, but I kept comig back to the writing program. I just could not turn down this chance.

I have written fiction on the side for the past six or seven years. I also dabbled in it when I was younger, but have never given this craft my full attention.

All that’s going to change ater this year. I’ll give up one or two nights a week to put my nose to the grindstone and have other people tell me what they think about my writing.