Going Back To College As A Positive Role Model

Pick up laundry, check. Go grocery shopping, check. Pick up mom’s prescriptions, check. Go back to college, check. What!?! At this time of my life, going back to school was not exactly at the top of my “To Do” list. My husband, Don, always said I could go farther with my career, I’m smarter than I give myself credit for, and I was selling myself short. He was the stand-out, initial motivator for me. Initially, I thought he was being nice and complimenting because he felt he had to. It wasn’t until Don and I engaged in a serious conversation about college over lunch one day. We weren’t talking about our youngest son who is preparing to embark on college this fall, but discussing me going back to school. No matter what downside I presented

Now I have to practice what I preach which leads me to my third, initial motivator – positive role model. When I started having kids, my perspective on life changed. What was important for me took a backseat to what was important for my children. Since then, doing things right changed to doing the right things. Going back to college demonstrates several things. First, it impresses upon my children the importance of a college education and how the possibilities multiple by earning a degree. We always tell our kids anything worth having is worth the hard work and sacrifice. My family has already experienced the sacrifice because we spend less time together, I’m less accessible, and doing things without me is more frequent. Secondly, it makes them realize making such important decisions should be done carefully and thoughtfully taking the family into consideration. I’m adjusting to something new as well, and my family time has drastically changed. College can be a very intimidating journey, but seeing me do it somehow makes it more possible and attainable. Knowing that and believing that, justifies the hard

Being a good role model for my children is an outstanding achievement and my second continued motivator. I’m currently 52 years old. No matter what I do or how hard I try to fight it, someday I will be 58 years old. I have the choice of celebrating my 58th birthday, or celebrate 58 years with a degree in my hand. I prefer the latter. I have yet to reach that time in my life where I think I’ve learned everything, and I hope I never do. I want more, do more, and learn more. I’m hopeful by demonstrating to my children that you can set out to accomplish anything, will give them the confidence to step outside their comfort zone, take every opportunity to learn, and never settled.

Unfortunately, there are a number of naysayers who don’t understand the benefit of earning a degree. Comments range from “that’s…nice”, “do you think you can do it?”, “6 years is too long to get a degree”, “what will you do with a degree at 58?”, and the best one, they say nothing at all. Those people wouldn’t qualify as motivators, however, doubting comments and skepticism will keep me working hard towards my