Back to School

Growing up, I always associated this song with graduating high school and moving on to college. It's just how I imagined it was how I would feel once I was a big bad senior and was going to go to whatever my dream school would turn out to be. It never happened. My actual senior year, I was much more concerned with simply starting my life than continuing school. My friends all went off to school, at least the local JC to get their AA's. I went to work full time for the marine biology firm I was working for. It was an easy choice at the time, and felt right.

It would be years before I would start to regret my decision to skip college. It wasn't the whole "college experience" that I regretted missing, because I did eventually attend Broadcasting school, and those years that I would've been going to college, well they were well lived. It was later, as I realized that I didn't want spend the rest of my life chained to desk, that I began to feel the nagging pain of regret. I had wrote for the school paper, aced speech, debate, and had even taken two years of Psychology, acing both years. I had laid a foundation to build on, I just hadn't followed through.

So that bright future that included college, well I figured it had come and gone. I didn't have the time or the energy for school as a mom. Or so I thought. Somehow over the last couple months, I changed my mind. As of last week I'm registered for the fall semester at the local JC. I'm going back to school for my associate teacher certificate. It won't be easy, but it'll definitely be good. With that certificate I can get some work teaching part time, and hopefully supplement that income with freelance writing. I'm proud, much more than I thought I would be.

It does feel strange walking through campus though, with all the 18 and 19 year old kids. I remember how old 30 seemed to me when I was that age. Doesn't seem quite so old now. My husband (whose forty) pointed out to me that 40 is the new 30. If that's true than 30 must be the new 20, and that means I'm not too old to back to school at all.

Regardless, for the first time in a long time, as far as my career goes, I feel good. For the first time in a long time, I find myself wearing shades. Because damn, that future ahead of me sure feels bright.