Studying with marriage and kids is the hardest thing a woman can do.
I've been studying since I got married and it's not getting easier. I finished high school with my two daughters and then I had my son. I entered the university with three kids, which was O.K. at first. As the kids got older, their demands became bigger. I went to lectures sometimes and "showed my face" as much as I can so the teachers would remember me and not give me "F"s I didn't deserve. When I moved to Madinah, the university here didn't accept me (on hearing the word "external" they will treat you like a roach) so, I stayed with K.A.U. in Jeddah as an external student and here starts the nightmare...
- The external student's schedules come out 2-3 weeks after the regular students.
- After fixing our schedules, it takes 2-3 weeks to find out who is going to teach us that so-and-so course and where to get the books for that so-and-so teacher. Of course this takes hours of useless phone calls to some grumpy people who have our futures in their hands, the secretary of the European Languages department, and the old man at the photocopying maktabah.
- I'll go to check on something and I find out, two weeks before the finals, that the teacher changed the poems and stories she wants us to read!
- Once someone gave me the wrong times to the exams and I missed an exam by 30 minutes. I went to the uni just to make sure she got it right. Al7amdu Lillah the teacher was very cooperative and gave me the test right away at her office.
- Once a teacher changed the time of the exam and I found someone to call her majesty and she said to come the next day.
- If you check the website www.kau.edu.sa you will NOT find that the course descriptions have not been posted until now. We are half way through the semester.
- I have to put up with all these things and take care of a husband and kids.
- I have no one to explain anything to me accept by searching www.sparknotes.com and www.monkeynotes.com.
- Our finals are from 100 and the whole book must be covered. No chapters are cut out like regular students, and our exams are not easy.
- They say external students don't get jobs easily!
I have 4 kids now, and two very difficult semesters are ahead of me.
Although he thinks I'm not doing what I really want (painting, reading) and should do (tarbiya), my husband helps a lot, Al7amdu Lillah. He teaches my older daughter (11 years) all her subjects and that's the biggest relief.
and since we external students study the whole book in very short periods of time and take one final exam from 100, and since we go through so much suffering, I think the Uni should give us special degrees when we graduate. It should say:
"Student Suffered Enough, Give Job Right Away."
