My journey to getting my G.E.D. began more than twenty years ago. At sixteen years old, I was in math class one day when I was called to the office of the high school guidance counselor, Mrs. Norris. She informed me that day the small-town school district I was attending was in the process of coming together with some other schools to form what they called the alternative classroom. Each school would be selecting one or two of their students who did not function well in a normal classroom setting for whatever reason, in order to send them to the alternative classroom.

During this time in my life, I suffered from mental health issues that were affecting me academically, and had just recently started experimenting with crystal methamphetamine to help me cope with day-to-day life. I did not know what was actually wrong with me back then, or that there were better ways to treat my symptoms.

At twenty-one I figured it out and put myself in therapy, but was still suffering from a secret drug addiction that impeded my steps in treatment. When putting myself in therapy I had made a fatal mistake; I convinced myself I was the exception, that the mental health system wouldn’t work for me. For years it didn’t.

After struggling for years with severe depression, anxiety, panic attacks, bipolar disorder, and split personality disorder, I knew I couldn’t keep going like this and something had to give.

What gave was me, like the willow in the wind.

If I could convince myself that the system wouldn’t work for me, like I had done in the past, why couldn’t I now convince myself that it WOULD work for me? I started meditating and using aroma therapy, and completely reprogrammed my brain from “I can’t” to “I can.” By doing so I started repairing damage from years of struggling with multiple mental illnesses.

I also realized that a major reason I had failed to get my G.E.D. twenty years ago, when I first began working on it, was that I had told myself I couldn’t do math. That is why I failed to get my degree for over twenty years. This time, I applied my “I can” method. It may have taken me four tries on the test, but in the end I claimed victory!

With God’s help, I defeated an addiction to methamphetamine. I defeated multiple mental illnesses. I learned how to do math and got my G.E.D. I would now say to anyone who doesn’t have a high school diploma, instead of telling yourself “I can’t,” tell yourself “I can.” It makes a world of difference.

Draftback lets you play back the revision history of any Google Doc you can edit. It's like going back in time to look over your own shoulder as you write. It is also handy in the classroom as you can see your students' writing process as they create their document like it’s a movie. And in the age of AI (artificial intelligence) and copy and paste, you can tell if someone typed out a document or simply copied it from somewhere else and pasted it into their document.

Draftback is a free Google Chrome extension. To install Draftback, open your Google Chrome browser and go to the Chrome Store https://chrome.google.com/webstore . At the top-left of the Chrome Store window, click on the Search Extensions box and search for Draftback. Then click on Add to Chrome:

After you add the extension to Chrome, you will see the Draftback button on your Google Docs that will allow you to click and play the movie of your documents creation.

Remember, you have to have Edit Rights to the Google Doc be able to use the Draftback feature.

For further questions or help, please feel free to contact

Rob Pollan rob@aalrc.org.