We live near one of the top-ranked community colleges in the United States, Anne Arundel Community College. All of our nine students have attended AACC either as dual enrollment students during their high school years or as students obtaining their associate’s degree before transferring to another school.
It was my turn in my retired educator status to enroll in some noncredit courses I was considering as part of upping the fun factor in my life.
I consider myself technically literate, having navigated many online applications, but I was having trouble as I began creating my online profile.
First, I kept getting that annoying red-lettered alert shouting the UNITED States is not an option for country selection. I shut down my computer, cleared all the cookies, and tried again. After a few more attempts, I successfully submitted my online profile, only to get another alert stating that I already existed in AACC’s database. I couldn’t imagine my being in their database let alone what username existed for me, so I waited for working hours to call the help desk to resolve the issue.
When I called the help desk, we discovered that all the Mary Gunthers in their database did not match my personal information. I was waiting for the inevitable question.
Do you have another last name?
Thirty-five years ago, I went by Andrews, I answered.
And almost in unison, we said, I(you) took a course in 1976.
Yes, I replied. I took a calculus course in the fall of 1976. I took that course to beef up my transcript while applying to the Naval Academy.
I couldn’t imagine that the community college still had a profile from 1976 in their records. I took this course long before the personal computer revolution existed.
That was crazy enough, but the help desk with some concern stated. Mrs. Gunther, I still need to confirm your identity. I’m afraid you may not know this information from 1976. What was your address?
I am living in the same house that I lived in in 1976. I told her the address, and she replied, ” Well, what’s odd is that we don’t even have a street address. We just have this address that begins with F.
Ah, that’s the name of our neighborhood, Ferry Farms, I answered. One road block was laid aside.
Well, how about your phone number in 1976?
That was also an easy question since we had kept my family phone number for an additional decade after we bought the house in 2001. I was confirmed as Mary Andrews!
I have to put in a name change request for the profile now. After 35 years of marriage, I never expected there would be any name change forms left for me to complete.
Well, there is one more thing I have to do. I have to decide if I register for yoga or iPhone photography.
pc: Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash
Hahaha! So is it yoga or iPhone photography?