For some reason a couple of years ago I decided that I needed to finish a bachelor’s degree. At the time, I was thinking that I was going to be able to earn a lot more money with a B.S. Now that I am half-way there, I am thinking, “At my age, I am never going to earn back the money I am spending on this degree.” My only hope is to keep taking classes until I die. Then I won’t have to pay back the student loans. Plus, at over 50, the best my B.S. in Organizational Management in Project Management (The students and faculty just say “OMPM” because the name is way too long.) will probably be good for is for showing off.
Going back to college is an example to my kids though, I guess. My married daughter, who left college early because she was expecting, says I am an “inspiration” for her to finish her degree. We have actually had a couple of classes together, which is fun, except that she is a much better student than I am and makes me look bad. One instructor told her to explain what he wanted in our journals because I wasn’t “getting it”.
I must admit I enjoy school. I even miss it when I take a block off. (Our classes are in five-week blocks - which is great, because you only have to complete one subject at a time; and awful, because you only have five weeks to complete one subject.) I like getting into healthy debates over world views or C.S. Lewis’s theology. And it must be the mom in me, but I enjoy encouraging younger students (That would be almost all of them!) when they are struggling.
I do occasionally skip a block. I learned the hard way that you should not to take a class during the last few weeks of your kids’ school year. Your either miss half of their year-end functions or end up with a bad grade, or both. Then you get to feel guilty and dim-witted at the same time.
You would think that taking on college course-work would demonstrate how organized I am. But really, I procrastinate more on homework than on anything else. I have even learned how to judge just how late an assignment can be without dropping my grade a letter. In fact, come to think of it, I had better get to work on those two papers due before midnight…
