Preface: This was written for my English Composition I class and submitted August 23, 2010.
It’s Never too Late to go Back to School!
After high school graduation I delayed my college plans to raise my child and continue working knowing that I would return to school one day. Sixteen years later, life has changed dramatically enough to necessitate a change as well as provide the opportunity for me to start working towards that dream. Over the years, I have always told my children (and promised to myself) that I would go to college no matter how old I was since I loved and excelled in school, wanted my children to learn that the importance of an education and to work towards goals.
I was a very driven student, especially in high school, by belonging to almost every campus group that existed, including being Vice President of the Writer’s Club and President of the Art Club, along with the academic groups I earned the right to be in. I maintained 8 classes a day, AP classes, and any involvement that I could for the enjoyment and the “college resume” it would create when the time came. Beginning in my freshman year, I was published in national anthologies for poetry and during my junior year I was nominated and inducted into the “Who’s Who of American High School Students.” I was on the path to make my goal a reality but my plan was interrupted when I found out I was pregnant when I was 15 years old, which was November of my Junior year.
I found out a few weeks before turning 16 that I was pregnant, planned to have an abortion but it was determined that I was 8 months along! At that point, delivery was my only choice and at the same time adoption was not since I am not prone to giving in or giving up when faced with a challenge. So, 3 weeks after turning 16 years old I delivered a healthy baby girl, even with almost no prenatal care. Early in my senior year I was accepted in to the University of Redlands, with scholarships, into their Medical degree program with the plans of becoming a General Practitioner. However, with the realization of the logistics of the college location, costs I would still have to cover and having a child to provide for, I declined to attend. That was the first decision to delay my college career that I made. It was then that a personal motto of “It’s never too late to go back to school” began carrying me through my life decisions that included marriages, more children, and focusing on furthering the stability of my employment as it presented itself. I am now on my 3rd marriage, have 4 biological children, and 1 step-daughter who have all heard me recite my motto many times over the years.
I ended up working in Real Estate, specifically Title and Escrow, for the last 12 years making a decent amount of money considering there is no degree for the area I work in. In 2009 I was diagnosed with Osteo Arthritis, Spinal Stenosis and 2 bulged disks in my lumbar spine. The demands of my work had exacerbated my back issues due to the recent booming Real Estate market. After the birth of my last child, I returned to work and my back pain became so debilitating that I was calling into work “immobile” all too often and was put on disability for the 3rd time. Following months of physical therapy and a back procedure that had minimal impact on my pain, my Doctor suggested that I look into changing careers to better accommodate the demands of my medical issues, which have no cure and will only get progressively worse. That’s when Doctor’s orders triggered my looking into school.
Finally, I am showing my children, by example, how driven I am academically and how study habits reap the results that I have spent years encouraging them to achieve. My grades and eagerness to do homework are also being evidenced by my grades, which they are both shocked and proud of. With 3 of my 5 children in high school now, the family “joke” is that I still started college before they did, if only by a year! I can proudly proclaim that I am finally living up to that I have always said, “It’s never too late to go back to school”.
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2010 Copyright by Shannon Peace
