I was asked a while back-why college? The basic answer I gave was that I simply wanted to improve my financial situation. But the more I thought about it I realized that is not the only reason why I wanted to go to college.
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I am a mother. I am always preaching to my children that their education is very important. I encourage them to always do their best, especially when it comes to their school work. I have taught them at an early age that college is the key to a happy and productive future. One day I was having a conversation with my six year old son who was in the first grade. I was telling him how important it is for him to make good grades and go to college and he said to me " that's why you did, right mom." That was a year ago and he has no idea just how much he had made me think. As a mother I try to teach my children everything, but sometimes they end up teaching me. I had been putting great emphasis on something I wasn't even willing to do myself and my son had called me out on it. I want to lead my children in the right direction and I can't do that from the couch in my living room. The best way to lead them is for me to do something with my life myself and hope they will later follow my lead.
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I do admit my financial situation needs improvement. I have worked a lot of jobs over the years, but wouldn't consider many of them a good job or a job that was taking me places. I began my working journey
many years ago in fast food as many young adults do. I've since then worked in a dental lab, a quality control
lab, drove a forklift for a warehouse, and spent many years on an assembly line. Most of these were just not for me. I like to be challenged, and if I'm not I get bored. The one position I did somewhat enjoy will now require me to have a college degree, so yet another reason why I felt the need to go to college.
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Even though I have worked a lot over the years I have also spent a lot of my time as a stay at home mom. I enjoy being a mother, but doing laundry and warming bottles is not very intellectually stimulating. It seemed like my only connection to the outside world was the television, everything from the news to the Oprah show. There wasn't much need for algebra or a big vocabulary and as they say "if you don't use it you'll lose it!' I was beginning to feel ignorant, oblivious to the online world or anything else outside my own living room. I settled for a lot of low paying jobs partly because I couldn't make my mind up what I really wanted to do and partly because I was settling. I'm tired of settling.
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Even though I am still not exactly sure what I want to do for the rest of my life I feel good about my decision to go to college. Luckily my family is supportive. My girlfriend does more than her share of helping with the children and household chores so that I am able to race out the door every day, rushing from class to class, and spending more time on campus than I do at my house. They say patients is a virtue, well my family is showing me a lot of that lately. Hopefully one day they will look back and respect me even more for this decision. While in college I hope to sharpen my basic skills in math and English and pick up some new skills as well. I hope college is a place where I can also express myself, share my opinions with others, and over all grow as a person and become a more productive member of society.
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