Going back to school

SilverFoxKnows

SilverFoxKnows

Joined
Sep 25, 2002
Messages
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at 35. In my teens and twenties I partied a lot. Okay, way too much. But inbetween depression, drugs, working full time and dating a psychopathic girl I got within spitting distance of getting my AA. The last six years I have worked at private university, where my schooling is free. I won't post a sob story but during this time my wife has had a long list of health problems. Heather's well being came first and I put school on the back burner. The time has come. I'm nervous as Hell, though. I haven't stepped foot in a classroom in ten years.


"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

You fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain

You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today

And then the one day you find ten years have got behind you

No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking

And racing around to come up behind you again

The sun is the same in the relative way but you're older

And shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time

Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines

Hanging on in quiet desparation in the English way

The time is gone the song is over thought I'd something more to say"


Frank
 
I think it would be more fun than a barrel of monkeys landing on a planet made of icecream and bananas.

My mother got her bachelors at age 43.

It's the doing, the moment we have. What's gone before doesn't count.
There's no counting. No time for counting. It's all the same moment.


Do it and have a serious good time.



munk
 
munk said:
I think it would be more fun than a barrel of monkeys landing on a planet made of icecream and bananas.

My mother got her bachelors at age 43.

It's the doing, the moment we have. What's gone before doesn't count.
There's no counting. No time for counting. It's all the same moment.


Do it and have a serious good time.



munk
Click to expand...

for my moment of Zen. Good stuff, and thanks.

Frank
 
I get my moment of Zen, of straightened-out reality and not the usual mess, when a friend breaks form and talks about his life, like you just did.
I wish I could go back to school too. But, gotta raise the kidlings.


You are going to have fun.



munk
 
A close friend and life companion for a while, decided to go back to school at about your age. I was moving up to Wisconsin, so we lost touch for a bit.

When I next talked with her, I asked about the experience.

She said, "The other day, I was leaning up against a tree, reading a book on philosophy. The sun was shining, all these young people were walking around, it was a quiet and beautiful day. It suddenly occured to me: "I'm SUPPOSED to be doing this !!!":D


I hope it is great for you, too.
 
I started back to school at the age of 49. Will have my Assosciates Degree in Nursing in about another year and a half. You are never too old to get an education. I had to spend my early years raising my 2 children, who are fine young adults by the way, and paying for a divorce settlement. Now it is time for me, and I am having a blast. Go for it, and the best to you.
 
Good for you, Frank. I'm kind of in the same boat as you were, except it wasn't so much partying as it was not being able to make up my mind what I wanted to do. Thus, I was on the 5 year (maybe 5.5 year;)) plan. Couple that with transferring and losing a lot of credits and then having my dad reneg on our education deal we had on a handshake...as men. That said, I'm close. I have all the education requirements for a BA in psychology except most of the core classes. These are excuses. I know that it could have been done. However, at the time it made more sense to take the job with the family business that would pay at a college graduated level.
Once my wife and I start to make ends meet a little more and start paying down some of the $30,000 in education loans she owes, then I plan on going back to my first school to finish up with an online program. It'll be a degree in intergrated studies (read as "Pay us you's monies and tanks fer par-tis-ee-patin") However, i will be graduated and will be able to build on that as time allows.
Congrats again, Frank. Higher education is so rewarding once you get past some of the idiotic red tape you have to hack through.

Jake
 
Doing university as a grown-up frequently makes all the difference.

You're there 'cause you want to be - you've got a fair bit of your "outside life" settled or underway, you've learned how to work. You know what tuition costs, and are determined not to squander it.

My wife teaches part-time at a university. She much prefers teaching older students, 'cause they have much more interest in engaging with the material. Fits for me - when I think of the time I pissed away doing my first degree ...
 
Hey, at least ther'll be some cute girls there.

Congrats. School is better than work IMO.
 
Frank it is never too late . I went back to School at thirty six . I then went to trade school to become an Electrician at thirty seven . I then went back at forty three to become an alarm technician . It is somewhat disconcerting to have 17 year olds and forty three year olds in the same class ......... I tried to take it easy on them . L:O:L
 
Best of luck to you. You will do fine. Being older, and having gone through the experiences you have, will help you establish priorities and avoid distractions. If I could get paid sufficiently to go to school, I would probably do it forever.

Eric
 
Just like it was your time to stop, it's time to go back to school.

Not only can you do it, you'll do it better at this point in your life.


Mike (will light you smoke tonight, but just for your peace of mind :D )
 
If I could get paid sufficiently to go to school, I would probably do it forever.
>>>>>>>>>> Eric006


Yes, many attempt to do this. They're useless in some ways, but a few of them manage to move on. We call these lucky few, "Teachers"



munk
 
My wife at "fourty-mumble" is taking online courses for a degree in human resources. When she completes that she'll be able to step into her bosses position in a few years when she retires and up her pay substaintally. Then I'll be able to retire.

My Grandmother went back to school at 61!

I wouldn't mind going back to school. I'd definetely study harder than I did the first time. Tuition has gone through the roof...I'd want my monies worth.

There is also the pretty girls..woohoo!
Tho occasionally a "humboldt honey" wanders into view. Dreadlocks, patchuli oil, hairy legs, anti-war tee-shirt. uuggh!
 
munk said:
If I could get paid sufficiently to go to school, I would probably do it forever.
>>>>>>>>>> Eric006


Yes, many attempt to do this. They're useless in some ways, but a few of them manage to move on. We call these lucky few, "Teachers"

munk
Click to expand...

There is something stimulating about being in an academic environment. Also, perhaps like many, there is a desire to hold on to some reflection of carefree youth - a hazy memory pleasantly filtered through selective recall.

Eric
 
Yeah, but you truly don't want to be an academic. You want to do something.

Get your degree, let the process of getting it change the way you think (that's why you're there!) as well as stuff you full on new facts, then get out.

Don't get me started on stories about academic navel gazing and hubris ... for all that my wife's one.
 
Part of me would like to go back to school for some course or two. I feel my brain is slowly rotting and the pus is oozing out of my left ear. I get dumber every time I use a Q-tip. Perhaps it's not too late to buy ear plugs. :rolleyes:
 
All the people I knew in college that were older seemed to enjoy it more, retain more with less work, and get better grades than all us young ones.

May it be the same with you.
 
munk said:
If I could get paid sufficiently to go to school, I would probably do it forever.
>>>>>>>>>> Eric006


Yes, many attempt to do this. They're useless in some ways, but a few of them manage to move on. We call these lucky few, "Teachers"



munk
Click to expand...

That's what I'm looking at doing. I hate cubicles and ties with a passion so that kinda rules out accounting. I'm not slick enough to do sales. I worked in a law office, I'll pass. I thought about mechanics but three years under an old VW cured me of that. I don't want to be a starving artist. I used to be a corporate trainer for a restaurant so I know I have some small ability to pass on information. But I had no desire to do the whole middle management thing. I don't the motivation to try to claw my way to the top of the corporate ladder. Bean counting and number crunching bores me to tears.

I've thought about teaching, off and on, for years. I love science and history. Even though I haven't been in a classroom for a decade I still enjoy the Learning, History and Science channels. I guess I'm just a big geek. I'm hoping I can pass on that enthusiasm. If I could get even a couple of kids to really use their brains and think it would be worth it.

"A Difference

There had been a storm
The beach was strewn with debris
A man walks.
Every now and then he stoops,picks up a form
and tosses it into the sea
I observe. They are starfish.

There were millions of them scattered
dying one by one
"You cannot make a difference", I said
as we talked out in the sun
He stooped yet again and made a grin
"It made a difference to that one."
It made a difference to that one.

PeterPiscean"

It may be wishful thinking but I try to keep that hope alive.
Frank
 
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