Driving in to work this morning I thought about when I first transferred to John Brown University in Arkansas in 1980.  My first semester there was in the Spring of 1980.  I had taken courses at two different community colleges near where I lived but I knew if I wanted to pursue my career I had to go away to a larger school.  I did a lot of research and found JBU in Siloam Springs Arkansas had what I wanted and was not too far away compared to other schools that caught my attention.  I applied to go there in the Fall of 1979 and was accepted but at the time there was no rooms left in the dorms.  JBU required new out of state student to spend their first semester in the dorm so I applied to live off campus and was granted that request, but school had already started a few weeks earlier and it would take too much to catch up.  I opted to wait until the Spring semester to start school.  I used my time working on towboats to build up my bank account since I would not work for an income while at school.

January 1980 showed up and I packed my ’77 Monte Carlo to head off to college.  I settled into my dorm room and as I was visiting with the academic counselor, I was told that I would not graduate until the Spring of 1984.  I had already had two years of college at this point and wanted to bring that graduation date to a year closer.  When we were going over the courses required, I asked if I could test out of all the English classes.  He said I could but that was a long shot.  I had to make a 70 or above and the test would cover everything that is required to graduate. It would be a two-hour test.  I was up for the challenge.

Test day came and there were about 10 of us ready for the rigorous exam. When the time came for us to start there were about 15 pages of questions and essays to answer.  I started out confident I could make at least a 70.  I was so focused on the questions that time slipped away before I knew it but as I wrote the last words on the final essay the bell rang for times up.  The next day we all showed up for the results.  The professor said that there was one person who made 100 percent.  I looked around to see who it might have been when he dropped my test on my desk and said “congratulations!”    I could not believe it! 

Passing that test gained me a year closer to graduation since I had less required courses to take.  I spent the next three years as a student at John Brown and enjoyed it.  I don’t think I ever passed another test with 100 percent, but I did pass. I graduated in April 1983 ready to take on my career in TV Broadcast Engineering/Editing.

Funny how things like this creep back into our memories.