I have an interesting task ahead of me. I have to write to a department of enrollment at my former college requesting they make a semester's grades non-applicable. I dropped out of college halfway through my fifth semester. I was disillusioned with my school, my major, and I was suffering from undiagnosed depression and various substance abuses. It wasn't pretty. And because I was halfway through the semester, I more or less failed every class.

A year after dropping out, I joined a program called AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, and it changed my life. I completed over 2,500 hours of community service and led a team of nine other 18-24 year olds in a year-long program of structured national community service. After the program I continued my service work, doing disaster relief in Detroit for three months and working at a summer camp in upstate Michigan for another six. A result of this rehabilitative process was that school started to appeal to me again. I plan on moving to Colorado and I would love to finish my undergraduate degree there. But I have an ugly semester on my transcript that I think would significantly lower my chances of successfully transferring colleges. I wondered if my alma mater could make the grades of the semester I dropped out of non-applicable.

I told my story to the person who was helping me on the phone today, She explained that making my grades non-applicable for a given semester is not a remedy available to anyone with less than 90 completed credits. I only have 65. I asked her if there was anything else I could do. I think I asked sweetly enough because she said there's a backend way to make the grades moot, and it's if I somehow "unenroll" that semester. She gave me a number that I called, and now I have to write an email to a special lady I've never met at a special department I've never heard requesting a remedy I don't fully understand.

I have to be concise. I have to be clear. I have to be persuasive. I'm looking forward to it, if only because writing clearly and effectively is something I always aspire to. I just wish that so much wasn't riding on it.