School's cool!
On Monday of this week, my lovely wife started her fifth year of elementary school teaching and her group of 19 second graders started the third year of their education. Later that evening, I embarked on year number twelve of my college education.
No, that is not a typo. I am starting on my twelfth year of post-high school graduate education. I will not be prefacing my name with "Dr." anytime soon, but after the fall semester, I will have 27 semester hours remaining before I can hang a bachelor's degree in business administration on my office wall. I never imagined that, after 3 schools (4 if you count my dalliance with the University of Phoenix, but that deserves a later blog entry of its own) and enough changes in my major that I lost count sometime back, I might actually be able to see the finish line. It's still a little ways off, but I'm now down to just a shade over what most schools consider a full-time academic year.
The beginning of every semester opens my eyes to a couple of things:
1. I'm too old to be there.
2. There's a lot of people who look and act way too young to be there.
I know I have no one to blame but myself for being a 29 year old college senior. If I were taking freshman and sophomore level classes, I might lose any thread of sanity I have left. When I do finish in about 2 years (maybe sooner), I will have nearly 10 years of experience with the same company and around 7 years of time served in a job that should be occupied by a bona fide college graduate. I'm certainly not expecting to find my dream job making truckloads of money after I cross the stage, but I don't plan to use my new qualification to get better at the same middle-management job for the next 30 years.
Since I'm taking classes that should be far more interesting than the classes designed to weed people out that I've taken in the past, I hope I'll have more to blog about throughout the semester. Stay tuned.
P.S. I hope to talk about the events of the last week on the Gulf Coast in my next post. Every good blog that I read has something to say about current events and I don't want to neglect my blogging duty.
posted by Bryan @ 12:27 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I'm so proud of you for sticking with school! You haven't given up and that is the most important part. Last week when we visited UNT I saw what you meant about feeling too old to be there. :) Hang in there - the light is shining at the end of the tunnel and we will celebrate with one HUGE party when it's all over!! Then we can go back for our Masters!
Did anyone confuse you with the professor? That is when you know you are old. And I want to come to the party when your long journey through the educational outback is done...
Ok, I have three thoughts:
1) The first - you beat Amy in the college endurance race. Congratulations.
2) I distinctly remember a conversation with my roommates in college when we poked fun at the "old people" in our classes. I obviously was an ass... because now that I am 33, I am certain that I am not an "old person."
3) There is a show on Broadway (and in Vegas) called "Avenue Q." It is a spoof on Sesame Street and The Muppets... for adults. It is very funny. One of the songs by the "thirtysomething" muppets is "I Wish I Could Go Back to College." The lyrics are demented, but here are a few of my favorites that you'd enjoy:
We could be
Sitting in the computer lab,
4 A.M. before the final paper is due,
Cursing the world 'cause I didn't start sooner,
And seeing the rest of the class there, too!
But if I were to go back to college,
I'd walk through the quad,
And think "Oh my God..."
"These kids are so much younger than me."
That's great and that's pretty much how I feel a lot of times. As long as there is someone there who is older than me, I think I'll be alright.
Jeff, I haven't been mistaken for a professor. Yet.
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