MTH401 Introduction
My name is Simon Swegles. I'm a fairly regular guy. I was born in Lansing many, many years ago. Shortly thereafter, my family moved to Port Huron. I spent 18 years of my life there, attending Woodrow Wilson, Howard D. Crull, Holland Woods, and finally Port Huron Northern schools (I can not recall the name of the preschool which I attended, but I distinctly recall smiling as I read the obituary of one of my instructors of that school). With an extremely supportive and understanding family I lived, I loved, and as soon as I graduated high school I ran away to college to fulfill my childhood (childish) dream of becoming an author.
I first attended college at UMASS Boston. I loved the school, and most of my professors were awesome. I was getting incredible grades and I even had short stories published in literary journals, but the social scene for outsiders was too exclusionary for me to bear at the time. So I transferred to the University of Evansville, where my sister was already attending, in an attempt to find a social life to balance my education. In hindsight, this was a bad move for my education.
My social life quickly took precedence over my schooling (which was misguided anyway). I had great friends, and met Peggy. The first night I met her, my friend Chris and I were desperately running door to door at the dormitory looking for a popcorn bowl. Her bowl served our needs (in fact, she and I still use it to this day).
In 1995 Peggy and I were married. We had a costume ball with a 'children's literature' theme at a beautiful ballroom in Evanston, IL (just north of Chicago). I dressed as the Mad Hatter (I love that flared top hat) and Peggy dressed as the White Queen. We followed up with a honeymoon at Disney World. Shortly thereafter we decided to move into our first home, in Lansing, Michigan. The Lansing house is one of my family's homesteads. My great-grandfather raised my grandfather there, and my grandfather raised my father there (before moving to Port Huron). At the time, it was a great opportunity to step into the dark waters of homeownership.
The homestead has been a lot of work. Nobody had been living in it for years before we took residence in 1996. Primarily, it was used as a dumping ground for storing all the things my grandparents wanted to keep, but could not justify keeping close. Outside of some amazing family treasures, we relieved that house of over 100sq.yds. of accumulated trash. We have rewired the entire house, built a hidden shed dormer and finished the attic space to add two large bedrooms, replaced the old coal-burning furnace and ductwork, re-roofed, rebuilt the front porch, built a deck on the back, re-painted the exterior, and done a load of landscaping. Hopefully we will be able to finish up the interior in the next year or so. We have outgrown that tiny space.
In 1997 Aidan was born. I have to admit, it took a bit of negotiating on Peggy's part to talk me into procreating. I was not too fond of the idea of having kids of my own to deal with. I was so happy with the outcome that Soren joined his brother in 1999. My boys are the best boys ever in the whole world. Even better than your boys. At least, that is my 'impartial' opinion.
School has been an important part of my life throughout all our trials, tribulations, moves, changes, jobs, etc. Whether it was just the occasional class at the local community college to keep my mind honed or a full-time program, I have kept school in my life. A couple years ago, Peggy and my mom suggested that I stop waffling, get myself into a degree program I was interested in, and follow it through. I had beed involved professionally in computers and networks for nearly 10 years, and I really enjoy the work, so I looked for a Computer Sciences degree I would be happy with. When I read about Baker College's Bachelor of Information Technology and Security (BITS) degree, I was hooked. I did not let the Owosso campus' hard-sell pushy admissions folks or their horrible registrar put me off my chosen course. Instead I simply came back to Port Huron. Here my kids get to spend more time with my family, my mom can help watch the kids while I study, we have so much space, and Baker campus is very close.
MTH401 Thoughts: I never used to care for math studies. Recently my college-level exposure has shown me how rewarding math can be. I don't really know what to expect from statistics. All I ever hear is how dry a subject it is. I hope that I will be able to find practical application for the statistical methods I learn through this course, as I finally did with the algebra, geometry, and calculus I have been exposed to in the past couple years.