Bringing Back Memories

This week I did something I haven't done in quite a while...I registered for class. That still sounds strange to say, but I am now offically enrolled at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

It's funny because it brought back a lot of old memories. Using the TRIPS registration system at OU was, looking back, pretty hilarious and probably antiquated to the web-based systems of today. And it wasn't even that long ago!

TRIPS was a phone system we used and you just entered your class using a given code number. Everyone hated hearing the dreaded, "The class you have requested is full" from the "TRIPS Guy" as we called him. It was actually a real person, but it sounded computer generated.

Registration was based on seniority and everyone always tried to get older friends to register for classes and then drop them right before we wanted to register. Some of us probably put more effort into getting into certain classes than we actually did in the class itself.

I just can't help but laugh as I think back to those days worrying whether or not you could get a certain professor, time or course. We really freaked out about those things back then, especially because no one in their right mind wanted an 8 AM class.

This time it was a whole lot different. Registering for my class was pretty much the same as buying something online. You just entered your contact info, selected the course and paid using a credit card. It was simple, it took just a few minutes, but it wasn't nearly memorable.