Blogging – Page 46 – Linda Nelson

Photo courtesy of Kimberly Powell via Flicker.com creative commons license

I was the one who didn’t go to college right out of high school. I did my college searches while in my junior and senior year, but I couldn’t decide where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. Picking the college was complicated. My parents didn’t want to spend oodles of money on my education, they wanted me to go to a state school. I wanted to follow the pack. I think our disagreement over which school I wanted to go to caused me to decline my continued education. My indecision scared me. It was easier to go out and find a job.
30+ years later, I find it is easier to pick a college than to find a job. How ironic, the way life has a turnabout when you least expect it.

How I picked my college after all these years

First, I needed to know what I wanted to learn. I’ve had a career for all these years. I’ve even changed careers several times. It wasn’t a matter of what I wanted to do with my life. Things change when you get older. A bucket list appears sometime around your 40th year. There are experiences you want before you won’t have a chance to do them. Maybe travel and see the world. Meet some Hollywood stars. Sail a boat in a harbor. Fly a plane just once. So, when I began to think about going back to school, I didn’t ask myself what I wanted to be when I grow up. I’m already a grown-up. What do I want to learn was the question I asked instead?
I began watching the college catalogs that came in the mail. I would look at the courses offered each time, in search of classes of interest to me. These catalogs were mostly of community colleges. I would see a few courses, but nothing that really excited me.
I looked at other colleges as well. Thinking maybe I needed a school that had more to offer, say Southern NH University. They had their courses that interested me, but the school was too far away. I didn’t want to travel. Then I came across the website for my final choice.
I don’t know if I fell in love with their website? Or, maybe it was the fact that they had degree programs aimed at Undergraduate Adults. I had to check it out. These courses were all online. Huh… Before I knew it I was clicking the link to find out more. By the next day, a student advisor was emailing me back and forth and explaining how easy it would be for me to go back to school after all these years. I had thought that when I couldn’t make my decision after high school, it was a missed opportunity.
My advisor is great! She talked me through the process of getting my high school transcript, applying for financial aid, and registering for classes. I was so excited when my first day came.
It’s been a lot of work; I have a minimum of two years to go. I think maybe four if I go on to a bachelor program afterward. Though at two classes a term it might be a six-year plan. But think of all the subjects I will be learning in the coming years.
This is something a teenager wouldn’t understand until they hit their 50th year.

I’m well overdue for a monthly coffee share. I have so much to share. So much has happened since we last sat down together. Where do I begin?

Back in April, I returned to work after being in the unemployment line for 8 weeks. That vacation set me back financially. I won’t be taking any long vacations for a while. The whole incident left me in a bad sort of way. I couldn’t write, not one single word. I was probably having a bout of depression for having spent those last 9+ years of my life working for a company that came up with a silly reason to let me go.

It wasn’t because I was a poor worker. I had excellent attendance, a hard worker, even met quotas that were unreasonable high. They were stressing everyone out with continually reminding us that there was another layoff cut coming down the line. The reason they gave me for letting me go was – wait for it – my age – pff! They couldn’t come up with anything better than that. Ugh! Who ever heard of such a thing? Isn’t that discriminatory? I thought they couldn’t use age for determining whether to keep a person as a worker.

Then they called me back – But this time as a temp. I had no choice, it was either take the job or lose the unemployment benefits. So, of course, I said okay. It is bad enough to return to your previous employer 8 weeks later as a temp, losing 9+ years of employee benefits – 4 weeks vacation – as of this past week, they have once again changed the playing field. Now they no longer pay temp employees holiday pay.

I agree, it is time for a career change. This leads to my latest endeavor.

I returned to school! 35 years later, but here I am, a 50+ college bound student. Now that I’m enrolled in school and working full-time as a temp, I have no time to write. What happens when you have no time to write?

That’s right, you want to write. I have thought of all sorts of stuff to write about while doing my homework. I’d have to tell my muse, “not now, I’m busy. Can’t you see, I’ve too much homework to do?”

How’s that coffee of yours, do you need a refill?

One of my courses is Career Image. I discovered that my best match career is writing. Go figure J

Now we are working on career goals, and I got thinking…

The goal for the rest of the year for writing: Blog once a week. That will take care of the muse and keep me in writing practice, and get these fingers exercising. I’m shooting for Sunday posts, which is my best day for getting things done unless my work schedule was to change suddenly. Who can say at this time?