Back to School - Entering College as an Adult

I had my notebooks, textbooks and number two pencils all ready for the first day back to school. I knew what I was going to wear and where my first class was located. But somehow this year didn't feel like all the ones that had come before. Starting college was unique enough, but starting back to school at the age of 41 was especially intense.

I had determined that I would go to college at the age of 5 when I began my school career. I wanted to be a lawyer at the time. Even when my career choice leaned more toward being a "professional" dishwasher at a local restaurant, my college plans didn't change. But in high school I fell in love, to my great surprise, and chose an MRS degree soon after graduation. My new husband vowed solemnly to send me to college some day, "even if you're 90!" So I guess I was actually ahead of the curve when I finally enrolled.

After two decades of staying at home, raising and homeschooling our sons, I was finally going back to school at the last possible time I would have expected for my dream of college to come true. My husband became very ill and couldn't work, so I rejoined the work force as a secretary for an insurance adjuster. It was interesting, detailed work, but it didn't pay all that well, and I decided that if I was going to be the breadwinner from now on, I needed something better. About five minutes away from my new job was a branch campus of a business college. One day I went on my lunch break to check it out. I ended up enrolling, and here I was, an adult in my 40s, ready for my first day back to school. I've heard it said that there is no great loss without some small gain, and this blessing in the midst of worry was mine.

I chose Business Marketing for my major, which included lots of much-needed computer classes; I also signed up for as many classes on writing as I could fit in to my elective schedule. I planned to take 3 classes a semester, a full load. So three days a week I would work from 8-5, drive to the college building and attend classes from 6-10 and then drive home, spent and exhausted. On weekends I planned to do homework, locking myself in the bedroom to concentrate on my assignments. The schedule was intense, even brutal; but it was also exhilarating. I find studying new things so stimulating! I love challenging myself and I planned to give my utmost to each class, paper, presentation, and exam.

Fortuitously, the very first class of my long awaited college education was a writing class. I have always loved writing, but there was so much I didn't know that I always felt a little like the child outside the candy store with her nose pressed against the glass door, longingly watching the fortunate ones inside. But today, my first day back to school after more than two decades, my long awaited first day of college, I walked right up to the door, reached out and opened it, and went joyously inside.

Source: Personal Experience