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| Me - eM @ age 44 |
My father and I circled the perimeter of the campus before we saw life just inside one of the turn-offs, so we went in. There was a very young woman sitting on the curb smoking a cigarette, we asked her where we could find building A. First she sighed really hard, rolled her eyes all the way back in her head and gave us directions that involved a lot of pointing and flying ash from her lit cigarette.
When we pulled away, I rolled up the window "I hesitate taking directions from children." I said to my dad as he searched for the exit.
Dad, ever the cool one, says, without missing a beat, or taking his eyes off the road, "Em, these are your peers."
I clamped my mouth shut. He was right. I was 41 years old, car-less, jobless, penniless, rootless, aimless, almost homeless, a bunch of other "lesses", and I was starting over going to college for the first time in my life and it was terrifying.
Now I am 44. I have been enrolled as a full-time student at a 2-year college since the summer of 2011. Why so long? 1) That summer I only took one class 2) I waited a year until I became a resident in the state of Florida 3) I took this past summer of 2014 off because I needed to.
I am still terrified, even though I know I have a lot in front of me and nothing pinning me to anyplace on the map right now. Things are wide open to me. I have only to choose. The beauty of it all is that I know I can start over, because I've been there, done that and I have the t-shirt to prove it.
When we pulled away, I rolled up the window "I hesitate taking directions from children." I said to my dad as he searched for the exit.
Dad, ever the cool one, says, without missing a beat, or taking his eyes off the road, "Em, these are your peers."
I clamped my mouth shut. He was right. I was 41 years old, car-less, jobless, penniless, rootless, aimless, almost homeless, a bunch of other "lesses", and I was starting over going to college for the first time in my life and it was terrifying.
Now I am 44. I have been enrolled as a full-time student at a 2-year college since the summer of 2011. Why so long? 1) That summer I only took one class 2) I waited a year until I became a resident in the state of Florida 3) I took this past summer of 2014 off because I needed to.
I am still terrified, even though I know I have a lot in front of me and nothing pinning me to anyplace on the map right now. Things are wide open to me. I have only to choose. The beauty of it all is that I know I can start over, because I've been there, done that and I have the t-shirt to prove it.
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