Whaddya Mean, You're Dropping Out?

So who knew that I would wind up dropping out of college after investing three or four years of my life in the pursuit of higher education? But I did, and it has been an upstream battle to get back, 26 years later! If I could give any advice to college students today it would be, first of all, this: Don't quit. Don't let ANYTHING dissuade you from following the path to your diploma and success.

I would also advise people to avoid student loans, as much as humanly possible. Too many college students wind up, at the end of the educational road, with overwhelming debt in the form of "financial aid" - also known as student loans. Granted, mine never topped $10K, but all the same, it took me years to pay them off. I won't go there again...nope, it's pay as you go for me - or I simply won't go to college.

At the moment this means working many hours every day and not turning down any reasonably profitable transcribing jobs, to writing blog posts and articles, selling kitchen tools - whatever it takes, within the bounds of the law, of course! Consequently, I am tired and in some pain, but my tuition account is getting fatter all the time.

What Took Me So Long To Get BACK To College?

When I left college, it was pointed out to me that returning would be difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish. This was indeed the case. Very quickly it became apparent that life was now about that paycheck and the (perceived) security it afforded. As time went by, my goal of graduation from college with my BA receded further and further until it became a distant echo and finally died out almost completely.

So what happened? Well, Charles E. Hummel calls it "The Tyranny of the Urgent". We allow the things that seem critical to crowd out the things that are really important - like finishing my BA, for example - until it seems that life is one long crisis with rare periods of calm.

Oh, it hasn't been all bad, really. In the years between 1983 and 2009, I met the love of my life and we were married in August 1986. I ran a medical transcription service for nearly 20 years and managed to stay home to raise the two children that we had (girl and boy). I was active in my church and community, and all in all my life has been very good.

With one exception, that is...the niggling reminder, every time I saw someone in a cap and gown or saw the notice in the paper that UAA was preparing to bestow degrees and honors on yet another crop of graduates - and I was not going to be among them! I am a person who has to finish what I start - and dropping out of college was leaving unfinished business. Like a burr under a saddle blanket, it kept wearing at me and wouldn't go away.

I started to think about how I could go about getting back to college. What steps could I take? What were my options? Could we afford it? I certainly didn't qualify for any sort of financial aid! While I didn't work full time, between my husband's full time income and my very part time income, we always were over the maximum for Pell Grants.

Maybe I'm Not The World's Oldest College Student...

At the outset, I would like to assure my readers that I do not possess, nor have I EVER possessed (let alone set eyes upon) a hand grenade...it is, rather, a metaphor for the life of a typical working woman, whether married or single, with or without children...like juggling hand grenades and praying that you don't accidentally pull out the pins!

I dropped out of college in the mid-1980s, after realizing that I was living on an income that was so far below the poverty line that poor people were richer than me. For example, at that time my idea of a rip-snortin'-living large-no holds barred celebration was a plate of hot tamales and all the fresh chips and salsa that you could eat at La Casita Dos. Sad, isn't it?

So I set out to work and earn a decent wage as a secretary. Held quite a few jobs, most of which were reasonably enjoyable. Some not so much...(one accounting firm I worked for actually drove me to drink for the first and last time in my life.) I didn't get rich, but my standard of living certainly improved.

At that point in my life I was a full time art student at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). My friend Elaine, a fellow Starving Artist, warned me that if I dropped out I'd probably never go back to finish my degree. Well, she was partly correct...it took me 26 years to dredge up the courage to set my foot on the path back to that elusive BA, but here I am - look out, world!