Gather 'round and let me tell you a story of someone who changed her own life. At age 28 she decided to go to college even though she had five kids, ranging in age from 2 to 10. The year before she started school the income for her family of 7 was under $8,000. She couldn't find a job that would pay enough to cover child care so she went to college instead. She got very little emotional support in her educational quest. Her husband took an "I'll just let the little lady get it out of her system" attitude. Her father told her repeatedly not to rock the boat in her marriage and if she ever ended up making more money than her husband she should downplay it to avoid bruising his ego. Her children (one in particular) complained bitterly that she wasn't always home any more and stopped baking bread as often.
Despite all the problems she encountered while going to school she gave it her all. She thought she was stupid in high school, until she looked back and realized that she had fairly well breezed through with mid B average. When college started she became a woman obsessed. She, who had routinely resorted to writing excuse notes for school in crayon, set out on a quest for the perfect ink pen. The addiction started simply, with her first trip to the college bookstore, and rapidly grew to include pencils and highlighters, too. Soon everything related to her four classes was color-coded. Specific pencils for math class and specific types and colors of pens for taking notes and matching highlighters for marking her books, all of which matched the folders she had designated for the classes.
When she got a part time job she used color coding in her schedules. One color for classtime, one for work, one for lab time, and one which was rarely used because it was for leisure. It was the only way she could keep things on track. Her time with her kids was often used as study time, with her reading her assignments to the children as their bedtime stories. Not many kids these days know much about Dante's Inferno" (part of the 14th century writer's Divine Comedy") or the many plays of Shakespeare, but hers did.
Maybe that's why my.....er...her kids have such twisted senses of humor.
Cool - I have a lot of respect for people, especially women, who go back to school. My parents just got me into school and made sure I left it with my diploma - and I think that's the easy way. Your way is so much harder - so again, I truly respect your will to get that education !!
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