But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, some background on me. I'm a 50+ wife and the mother of two beautiful college-aged daughters. When I graduated from high school 35 years ago, I went on to earn a degree in journalism and economics. I moved to the Texas Gulf Coast and worked in the oil and gas industry in investor relations for eight years. While there, I earned my M.B.A., with an emphasis on finance. When my husband was promoted, we moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area and I worked as a marketing/product manager for the next twelve years. After a couple of layoffs, I finally decided the last one was God's way of telling me it was time to stay home and raise my girls, so for the past 10 years, that's what I did.
When my oldest went off to college three years ago, I decided to do the same and started another master's program. My advisor asked why I was going for another master's when I already had one. Why not go for the doctorate? It's only a couple of classes more. So, I jumped. But those couple of classes turned out to be about six more, since I have no background in the field. And a requirement of a Ph.D. is that the student must spend two semesters resident on campus. So, now that my youngest has graduated high school and is off to college herself, I'm going to spend my two semesters on campus taking background classes.
Am I worried? Not about the classwork. That's interesting, and although I can't memorize things as quickly as I could when I was 20, I don't think I'll have any problems. But, all those doubts and thoughts even the 18-year-olds have when starting classes for the first time? Well, it's even worse when you're an "older student." What if no one ever talks to me? What if I annoy them? What if they all think I'm really lame? (Not exactly sure what that means, other than my girls think it's a really bad thing to be.) What if I can't find my classes? What if I have a hot flash right in the middle of class? No 18-year-old has to worry about that one!
So, I'll gather up my things and spend my week days 200 miles from home. I'll sleep in our travel trailer and spend my days in the library or in class or labs. I'll learn to fit in, not by acting like I'm a 20-year-old wannabe, but just by being myself, grey hair, wrinkles, and all.
I can't wait!
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