It's been months since I've posted a blog entry. Really not been active on social media, either. Other than a comment or two on someone else's posts, and the everpresent birthday wishes that Facebook goads me into sending daily, I have almost dropped off the map. Because for the first time since 1990-yes, 1990-I have been busy busy BUSY-with school.
In order to move forward on my goal of becoming a Jr. High teacher (no, I've not gone off my rocker in deciding to teach the rowdy bunch, it is actually my preference, based on my actual bus-driving interactions with groups of elementary, junior high, and high school students), I am taking classes at the local community college prior to diving into University of Houston's final lap of teacher training. This semester I took a small load, just three classes, enough to re-introduce myself to the rhythms of note-taking and studying and testing.
It's been BUSY. Enough, along with my daily bus routes and household chores, to keep me neck-deep in books and study and papers.
My brother Shawn, who is also in school out in Seattle, can attest there is a world of difference in going to school as an-ahem-scholar of seasoned years. We ain't here to play. Been in the real world for a long time, I have the proof in my experiences that the more education one has, the less apt one is to have to work a physically grueling or low-paying job to make ends meet. I was lucky enough to find, first in the world of restaurants and then in sales, jobs in which my natural organizational abilities, drive to excel, and communication skills would sustain me and make me a marketable "commodity." I am, thankfully and gratefully for the groundwork Stacey and I have been laying all these years, able to pursue my heart's desire.
It is nice, this time around, to know who I am and specifically where I am going this time around. It is nice to have a lot of experience, to understand how I am most successful and what strategies will get me there. Hence, when I am assigned a paper, I START on it. That day, generally. My research paper due next Thursday? Completed last weekend. My speeches? Written, rehearsed daily for at least a week in advance, and given with only minimal reference to notes because years of performing scripts and sales presentations taught me how to internalize the information and then deliver it for a more natural flow. Upcoming tests and study guides? Studied daily, to avoid any last-minute cramming and panic.
It is nice to know how I learn and how to keep the stress at bay.
What is also nice, though, is to be in school with a huge cross-section of people, more so than I got in my more traditional 4-year-university classes. Houston Community College does have a lot of kids fresh out of high school either taking a 2-year program or preparing to springboard into a 4-year degree somewhere else after getting the core requirements out of the way at a steep bargain. But it also is full of single moms, returning soldiers, and grandmoms returning to academia.
A good place for a bus driver to start.
Yes, in most classes, I am the oldest student. Yes, in most classes, the professor will make a culture reference from the 1970s or 1980s and look at me in a moment of generational understanding as some of the 18-year-olds look blank. But I look around me, at the students in the familiar cheap desks, pens busy scratching away on paper, and see in all those faces the same expression: ATTENTION.
Everyone is there for a reason, to make the next step on the journey toward a personal goal. So, I salute all my colleagues in class, from young to old, all at a different place on the path, but all together for a little while for a common purpose.
A classroom is a great place to be!
