Maybe it was too soon to call to that light at the end of the tunnel. 14 days left of “Marketing Madness” but who’s counting?
Me. I am counting every. Single. Day.
Let’s get into it.
I have already stated I will not be an analyst. There was some curiosity at the beginning, I haven’t known what I want to be when I grow up. I’ve always said “A Writer,” but as that has proved to be so much more difficult than I thought it ever could, so I need a day job. I have been open to possibilities.
Needless to say, I went into this analytics class with an open mind.
Things were going okay, I mean, after the horrors of Facebook and Google Ads in my advertising class what could be worse?
Analytics was hard, it made me leak brain fluid.
It caused some intense questioning of my intelligence, however my advertising class took first place in “classes I never want to revisit.”
Advertising is still causing headaches and will until the very last assignment is turned in. Today I had to set up a fake Twitter ad. I have no idea if I’m doing it right. I feel like I’m blindly turning assignments in and hoping for the best. Also a trend in online school is to have a discussion over a topic by posting your thoughts and making comments on two other student’s thoughts. This can get tricky because we are all saying similar things… This week to mix it up we have to respond to five students and come up with some kind of rebuttal to their thoughts. I am low on conversational juices at this point in the school season.
How many different ways can I say “yeah, I like what you said there…”
Hence that assignment won’t be done till the morrow. When my brain isn’t mush.
Are you flattered that I save my blogging for the end of the day when I am sure the hamburger I had for dinner resembles what is left of my brain matter?
Back to my analysis class…
I spoke personally to a group member with whom I’ve only WhatsApped with. He was very kind. He has a grown daughter in a Masters program who gave him this advice…”Dad, this is a 100 level class, you are spending too much time, for too little points.”
I tend to agree with her. This week I had planned to explore the WONDERS of Tableau. If you aren’t familiar it’s a data visualization tool. I wanted to see if it lived up to the hype a different group member had given it.
“Try it,” he said, “I am really liking it.”
Perfect timing, I have an assignment I need to come up with. Why not make it getting familiar with this program?
Why indeed.
I needed proof of my studenticity to get access to Tableau which was a pain. It took me three days of my precious workweek and back and forths with help desks to figure out all I needed was my unofficial transcript.
Hurray! I finally was approved and had an access key.
But no, it would not download. It kept bringing me back to the homepage that asked me to sign in and which version did I want?
How am I supposed to know which of the six versions of your program I need? How about all of them? No?
After downloading and downloading and downloading and finally restarting my computer hoping that would help, I tried to get on to my student portal to maybe work on another assignment.
The universe had other plans. I was denied access to my own portal. It did not recognize me as enrolled. La sigh.
After 30 minutes on a help desk chat it was a simple fix. But I didn’t want anything to do with Tableau. I’m no quitter and I’m also a glutton for punishment, so the next morning I sat myself down and found an email from the Tableau help desk sending me a new link that should work. This was not a link to my student year long free access, this was merely the two week access they give to anyone willing to brave this program.
Still, it was something. So on I trudged. I watched a few YouTube videos that were not helpful. Finally by late afternoon with no work to show for the last 6 hours I threw in my towel for Tableau. Tableau 1-Me 0.
Next up, DOMO. I won’t get into the nitty gritty but DOMO was so beginner friendly. I wasn’t able to upload the data I wanted to use but at least they had sample data. I would have something to turn in.
“When will she talk about running, I’m so excited for it, but what does it have to do with school and classes and learning.”
Well, I will tell you…
Between my dabbling in young adult education (that space in time where we don’t really know why we’re going, we just know we should so we sign up for classes that we don’t really care about and have more withdrawals and drops than actual credits.) and my dive into young motherhood, (yes, some personal information. I am a mom of four and have been a mom for 21 years.) During that time of motherhood where I had very little that was my own I became deeply immersed in long distance running. I loved and still love running for the satisfaction it brings of a goal well-planned. Plan out your workouts, follow your plan, watch as those long runs come and go, check, check, check…it’s incredibly fulfilling to someone whose daily tasks are undone in a matter of minutes by little hands.
What I learned in running long distance is that you do not want to be told “you’re almost there!” By anyone, unless the finish line is literally around the corner. I “almost there’d” myself last post, and the finish line isn’t around the corner until I have one or two assignments left in this semester. So I’m sorry to myself. I apologize. Take a deep breathe, focus, one foot in front of the other. It’s okay to visualize the finish line right now because it’s going to feel good, but it doesn’t mean you can stop and walk.
What She Learned Today 