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.
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