Alternately titled: Back to School with Your Bad Self
Straight out of high school, and I had no idea what I wanted to do with myself. My mother and grandmother informed me that I would be moving from Indiana to Arizona and enrolling in college there. And sure enough, the summer I turned eighteen my grandmother hauled me to a college in Arizona and set me up with some general ed. classes.
It was at that point that I decided I wanted to become an Interpreter. I would fly the world, and armed with my knowledge of six to eight different languages, I would interpret for whomever could afford my outrageous fees. And so, at the start of the next semester, I took Spanish II and Introduction to German and Russian classes.
Once my grandmother caught wind of what I was doing, she promptly told me that trying to learn eight languages would be nearly impossible. And I was struggling; it was definitely hard. And so, at the start of the very next semester, I went back to finishing my general ed. classes with an emphasis on Childhood Development and Psychology.
People, that was sixteen years ago. And here I am, back in those same general ed. classes.*
*Yes, seriously. Since I never graduated and all my credits are over ten years old, I have to retake those classes in order to earn a degree at this school. As MC would say, it is what it is…
So here’s a recap of my first week at school:
Highlight: Another student asking me if I still lived with my parents or if I had my own place.
Low point: Actually doing the math and realizing that I am, in fact, twice the age of most of the students.
So far, the classes are okay. Years of life experience have given me new ‘school eyes’, and I’m no longer afraid of the teachers or the other students. I ask questions when I have them, and I don’t care what the other students think about me. Well, that’s kind of true… I still like to be liked, but they’re not my peers.
My peers? Most of us are parents of a certain age, and some of us have kids only a few years younger than the students I’m taking classes with. But my peers are all adults, and that cannot be said for some of my fellow students. I don’t think age makes you an adult, I believe life experience and responsibility does. I’m being brutally honest and saying I was definitely not an adult at the start of my college experiences.
That said, I’m excited to start this journey of Back to School. I know I’m still in the ‘honeymoon’ period with school; right now I love it. I’m hoping to hold on to that feeling when life gets tough, as I know it will: I am a parent of three kids and a wife first and foremost, and I expect there will be times that that will get in the way of my schooling.
But here’s the thing – I love blogging and the awesome friends I’ve made as a blogger. I love designing web elements and playing with the code to manipulate the web pages. I simply love everything about this whole process… and that is what I’m going to school for. I am now a VCOM student and my area of study is multimedia / web design.
Pretty nifty, eh?
Well, enough about me…
What are you up to this week?
