Block Plan Living

"Your college decision is not permanent," I lie. "If things don't work out, you can always change your mind."

It's true that high school seniors can eventually transfer if the initial college they choose turns out to be a bad choice, but I think I may have underestimated the permanence of that first big adult decision. It's April, and this is the month that many of the soccer recruits I have come to know over the last six months are making a final decision about where they will be attending college next fall. When I was a senior in high school, I knew well before April that I was going to go to Colorado College, but what I didn't know was that Colorado College was going to become such a permanent part of who I am.

For those of you who are not CC alums, you may not fully appreciate what it is to live on a block plan, but let me try to explain. Students at CC take one class at a time. The class lasts for 31/2 weeks and for minimally 3 hours Monday through Friday. It is an intense way to digest a semesters' worth of material, but the focus is on one thing at a time, and thus one final at a time. When the class isdone, there is a Block Break that lasts from Thursday through Sunday, and then the next block starts. Students take 8 blocks a year, although there are some classes that are two concurrent blocks long. It is definitely not your typical college semester-plan, and I'm starting to realize that it has sculpted everything about my life.

Yes, I met my husband there, and of course the children who have joined us are a bi-product of our marriage, so undoubtedly my time at CC started the family that is now my life. I do think, however, that the block plan style of living has had an even deeper impact on the way we operate. We're still on the block plan...it's just a much larger version of it.

For more on how we live BLOCK style...