I’ve been checking the website once a day. This morning it finally came through. I took 9 credits of classes this past semester. And worked (albeit part time). It may not have been a full-time course load, but it was enough. When I went to UMD the last time, they simply had letter grades with no plusses and minuses. That was implemented (I think) sometime in the late 1990s. So back then if I had an A-, it would still be counted as an A. And worth 4.0 “points.” Nowadays an A- is a 3.7. And an A+, for some weird reason, is also worth 4.0 points. Makes me wonder…

Everybody knows now. (Note: I started writing this two weeks ago and forgot about it. So assume you’re reading about this back before I even started my finals.) I used Twitter as my testing ground, posting a thread where I announced that I didn’t have a degree but that I was going back to school. I even talked a bit about the stigma surrounding those who don’t have a four year degree and why we should eradicate it (and make college free or heavily subsidized). You can find it here. And then there were rumblings about it where I told people on my birthday in live videos on social media.…

What I’m about to tell you is not my story. It belongs to someone else who is close to me. If I could, I would ask for her permission to tell it — but she’s not. She grew up in suburbia. Lived in a place which had a significantly smaller Jewish community than my own, but still one with a few area synagogues. She was a shy kid growing up. Oh — and she hated Hebrew school, which she would have to attend on certain afternoons after school. The other girls in her class were mean to her. The teacher didn’t ever do anything about it. And it made her…