Wednesday, November 15, 2006

   Epic

Success! I am officially an art major again! Hail merciful universe! *bows* And boy do I have a story for you guys. It is a tale of bureaucracy, confusion, uncertainty, lost files, and a shitload of walking. Yes, this is the story of my adventurous day changing my major. I woke up bright and early Tuesday morning at 6 am, went through my morning routine and embarked on my 35 minute journey to NIU promptly at 7. I arrived at the office of the undergraduate advisor for Visual and Performing Arts around 7:45, checked-in at 8, and was first on the list for her walk-in hours at 9. I killed an hour reading Abarat (fabulous series by the way) and then spent about half an hour meeting with the advisor and making my pivotal To-Do List. List in hand, NIU switchboard number on speed dial, and declaration of major officially signed, I was on my way to kick some bureaucratic ass. First victim, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Apparently, I needed to fill out some concurrent enrollment paperwork that my original counselor conveniently forgot to inform me of for my Japanese class at my local community college, and since my files were still at the LA&S office, they needed to have it filled out there. Once that was done, I stormed the Foreign Language Department in order to make sure that the afore mentioned class would transfer (it’s new at my community college) and I spoke with the Japanese professor about how the classes compare. The next beast for me to slay was that vile creature known as the Registration Office. Upon preparing my paperwork for my meeting the night before, I had noticed that my Associates degree was not on my report. Considering that I had a lovely little diploma sitting at home, I was pretty damn sure that I had earned it. After conversing with a very pleasant lady, it was discovered that my community college had sent my transcript too soon and my degree was not listed. Vowing later vengeance on my alma mater, I decided that it was a good time to take a lunch break and finish up my readings for my 3:30 class. When I returned to my mission, I realized that now was probably as good a time as any to pay my library fines, since I was already out conquering. After a little bit of a run around, I was directed by the library to the Bursar’s Office to pay the fines (O_o weird) and was surprised to discover that the college no longer collected library fines. The computers still record them, but there was no longer anyone assigned to the job and they just stopped doing it. So, all weirdness aside, I figured that I had successfully defeated the dreaded college bureaucracy with relative ease. That was until it suddenly rose from the dead and came back to bite me in the ass. I happened to glance back to my All-Mighty Checklist and I noticed that I had forgotten some business with the LA&S department. As I returned to the former masters of my fate, I was met with a startling surprise. The woman who had helped me before informed me that she had just left a message at my house saying that the LA&S department didn’t have my files. In fact, as far as their computers said, I had never been a Political Science major (despite the fact that I had gone through orientation as a poli sci major), and my files were still being held in the Visual and Performing Arts department (from back when I was an Art Ed major). Throughly confounded, I trekked to the V&PA office. After discussing the situation with a nice lady, she went digging and returned to inform me that she also had no files on me, nor did she have any record of ever sending them to a different department. Entirely unfazed by the situation, she filled out the concurrent enrollment paperwork for me and said that since it was my first semester, they really wouldn’t have had much in my files anyway. She made me up a new file and I was now officially and physically placed. The bureaucracy monster was defeated, dead, and buried (at least for this semester), with just enough time left over for me to make it to my 3:30 class. Thus ends my epic battle story. Next time, I think I’ll take on the terror that is… the Honors Department! *Bolts of Dramatic Lightning and Thunder* I really need a nap. -Quotation of the Day- "I've got an idea for a great Bible drinking game. Have a shot every time [King] David cries." -"Blogging the Bible" by David Plotz- (a great online column that you can read here if you so choose, by a practicing Jew who one day decides to read the entire Bible and look at it as something new)

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