I swear, I feel like I have senioritis! This is my last week for this quarter and I am ready for it to be over! Tonight was the last night for one of my classes, so that leaves one to go. This week is not going by fast enough at all.

Once this week is over, I will have three glorious weeks off. I almost feel like I am waiting for spring break - minus the binge drinking, random parties and all that other stuff that comes with it. I think the main reason this quarter differs from others is that both of my classes have issues. One class is just boring. It is a pre-requisite, core class, so I have no choice. But it is so boring. Sometimes I wonder why we have to take these classes that have nothing to do with our majors. I know, I know, well-rounded education. Sigh

My other class is, well, not what I expected. And after the final tonight, I have no clue how I did. Some of the questions on the final are things the professor never covered and my classmates were not happy about that. But as it figures, he went overseas last week and he had a colleague oversee the final. I think I pulled more answers out of mid-air than I did from facts I knew and learned in class. I am only hoping the project I turned in is enough to carry me to at least a B.

But on a high note, I did receive a certificate before class stating that I made the Dean’s List from January through May. So at least something went well today.

How do you stay motivated in pre-requisite classes or manage a situation where an instructor throws you for a loop?

Often when I talk about attending college with spouses who have not yet gone back to school, I am asked ‘Should I do online classes, or sit down classes?’ Well, the choice is yours really! There are a lot of things to consider when deciding which option is best for you. First and foremost, I always advocate doing your homework. What I mean by that is fully researching the school you want attend. There are reputable and not so reputable schools out there (both online and one’s with campus locations) so it’s always best to make sure you are careful with your selection.

If you are unsure about what school you would like to go to, stop by the Education Center on post. They are a great source of information. A lot, if not all Education Centers also have representatives from several colleges that are more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Luckily for me, my college has an office at the post I am at, and anything I have to do concerning my classes (turn in VA paperwork, etc), can be done there.

Now, you need to decide if doing classes online or going to class will work for you. When I started going to school, online classes (and even a couple I took that were offered on the college’s own television channel) worked best for me. I had one child in school and a baby at home. No way would sit down classes work for me. Since then, I have taken probably 95% of my classes online. It also depends on your major. Some majors have classes that must be taken in class, like a lot of your science courses. I have only had to take a few on-campus classes, but I really enjoy online. Even though you still have due dates, I feel it is less rigid. You don’t have to be somewhere at the same time every week and are free to do your assignments when you find what time works best for you. I have done many assignments in the wee hours of the night!

 If you like the structure of a sit down class, and feel that you are held more accountable if you actually have to go to class, then that’s what will work best for you. I have several friends that prefer a physical classroom environment, and feel that online classes make it too easy to be lazy and not get their assignments done. So really, it’s whatever you feel most comfortable with and where you feel will do your best. If you aren’t sure, try both! It won’t take very long for you to figure out which learning style works best for you, your family and your schedule.

I cannot believe I am sitting here, weeks away from my 20-year high school reunion. Where have 20 years gone? I remember being a freshman and thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, we have four years here. We are going to be here forever!’ Not only did those four years fly by, but so have the last 20!

As I sit here thinking about my high school career then, and my college career now, it’s almost comical how things have changed. I didn’t care too much about how I did academically in high school. Going to college was not on my radar. As time went on, I did decide to go to college, but to a community college, so what did grades matter? As long as I graduated, I was good.

Minimal effort was put forth on my behalf to get the grades I knew I could earn. If I didn’t have to crack a book and could get a C, that was good enough for me. I was even smart enough to pass quite a few classes with A’s and B’s, but it wasn’t because I tried my hardest. As I look back, I realize just how lazy I was in high school.

And now? Now I am disappointed when I get a B. Even though a B is a good grade, it’s not good enough. I’ll take it, but I’m not always happy with it. I was invited to join my community college’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa for earning a 3.75 GPA and maintaining a 3.5 throughout my time at my community college. I just found out a couple days ago that I made the Dean’s List for the semester. I am also working towards being invited to join several honor societies and cannot wait until I finish this next quarter and have earned the required credits to be considered.

Isn’t it funny how things change? I don’t know what it is. Age, maybe? Or the fact that my priorities have changed? Or that my goals have changed? I believe maturity plays a part in it as well and the fact that it means something to me now. It is not only the opportunity to go to school, earn a degree and do something I want to do when I return to the workforce, but also to be a great example to my kids. That’s worth the hard work all on its own.

Have you ever gotten to the point when you know something needs to get done, but don’t have an ounce of motivation to do it?

Yep, that’s me. And the motivation has been missing since, oh, the start of summer vacation!

I don’t know what it is. Perhaps it is not having to get up early and get the kids off to school. Or perhaps it’s the ridiculously hot weather that is draining me. Whatever it is, it’s not good.

I find myself waiting until almost the last minute to do my homework assignments, or worse, I am not giving what I believe is 100 percent effort.

Granted, I am carrying an A in one class and a high B in another and only one assignment has been turned in which counted toward the grade in that class. But I honestly don’t feel like I am giving it my all. I’m just not feeling it. You know what I mean?

I tell myself at the beginning of every week that I am going to start my assignments and finish them early. Between Monday and Sunday, that gusto goes out the door.

I may get them done, but never as early as I like. I hope that motivation returns soon, as I have a term paper to write and finals in a few weeks.

What do you do to regain motivation?

Do you ever feel like there are not enough hours in the day? Well this week, I am feeling exactly that. It is midterm week, and I have two. Thankfully, my college has two quarters as opposed to one semester. That makes studying easier with just two full-time classes to juggle each quarter as opposed to four in a semester. But that also makes the classes move along at a faster pace. Add that work in with everything else that’s going on this week and I feel like I am doing all I can to keep up.

This week my daughter has basketball camp - nothing intensive as she is only 8, and it is not a full day camp. However, it’s just long enough that I don’t necessarily want to sit there, and just short enough that it doesn’t give me a whole lot of time to run around and do errands. And, it’s smack dab in the middle of the day. Lovely.

I also have a list of errands that seems to be never ending. Pick up my daughter’s prescription, grocery store, a seemingly daily trip to Wal-Mart and a host of other things. One of my classes is 5 hours long and wipes out an entire evening each week. Our family has also added walking to our evening routine. There is a trail on post that is just beautiful. It is woodsy so it’s nice and shaded and has enough hills to get a pretty good workout. And it’s 2.5 miles.  Do you know when I last walked 2.5 miles, on purpose?

Oh, and don’t forget our unit’s organization day, aka family fun day. Not only will that take up Friday, well into the afternoon, but I think the next town over is putting on a fireworks show that night too. So there’s yet another activity to add to the list. So when am I supposed to fit my midterms in there? Hmm. Not sure. I think I have some time in the middle of the night!

What are some of your strategies for balancing studying and home life?

Focusing on my schoolwork has been tough lately because my concentration keeps being invaded by thoughts of the impending PCS to Korea that my husband will be making - alone. Even though it is 10 months from now, I am already running through the checklist of what needs to be done and know I am going to forget something. It has been a couple of years since my husband has deployed, so we’ve gotten a break from him being gone every other year since ‘01. When he leaves, he will have been home for three years straight, which hasn’t happened, ever, in our 14-year marriage. I’m already worried about getting things done.

Even though this isn’t technically a deployment, I know the deployment gremlins will show up. They have every other time, why not again? Something will go wrong with the car, an appliance or with anything else that can break down. And I will, for the first time, have the added pressure of trying to sell our house while he is gone.

Deciding on when the right time is to put it on the market is not an easy one. And with the housing market these days, there isn’t even a guarantee it will sell. So, as soon as my husband finds out where we will go after Korea, I will be putting the house up. I figure I’d rather have too much time, than not enough. And if it happens to sell quickly, I will be moving myself, two kids and a dog into a rental. Not something I am looking forward to, but I really, really do not want to rent out our house when we move. I am a worrywart and I will constantly worry about whether the renters will pay on time and if they are taking care of my house. If we don’t have renters, I will have the added worry of paying a mortgage and rent. I just want to be done with it.

The separation is one more reason I need to stay motivated to finally finish my degree, because I don’t want to have to balance everything plus school. Doing battle with those deployment demons isn’t always easy but I’ve done it before and if I’m going to stay on track to graduate before my husband leaves I’ll need to do it again.

When people ask me how I am paying for school, I have no problem telling them that I am using my husband’s GI Bill. Thanks to the Post 9-11 GI Bill, my husband was eligible to transfer part of that benefit to me and it truly has been a gift.

Obviously when people start looking into furthering their education, one of the most important questions is, how am I going to pay for this? And the answers are many. Grants, scholarships, loans, save up and pay in cash - the list goes on. When I began my educational career, I was lucky enough to qualify for the Pell Grant so my expenses were taken care of. This was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I wanted to further my education, but I did not want to go into debt for it. A good friend of mine graduated from law school last year, and along with her degree, she also accumulated $250,000 in school loans. Granted, I am not pursing a law degree, but still. I can buy a house for less than that!

As my husband moved up in his military career and got promoted, the amount I would receive for the Pell Grant was reduced until finally it got to the point that it would not cover all of my tuition anymore. At that point, my husband offered to transfer some of his GI Bill to me so I could finish up my degree. At first I didn’t want him to do that because I didn’t want to take from him what he had earned and had paid into. But after discussing it, we decided it was a good idea. My husband is currently in school as well, so he is taking advantage of Tuition Assistance. He will finish his degree program in about two months, so he won’t use his GI Bill.

So what does this mean for me? It not only means that I will be able to finish my degree, but that I will graduate debt free!  How many people can say that? I will have no pressure to hurry up and find a job because my student loans are going to be due soon and I won’t be paying on those student loans for years on end. I can begin my career not in a financial hole, which means a better financial future for not only me and my husband, but for our children as well. That is worth its weight in gold.

‘I don’t want to go to summer school!’

I cannot believe that at 38 years old, I am saying this.

I also cannot believe that I am envious of my two kids because they are enjoying their summer vacation, and here I am, taking two classes.  Granted only one class is a sit down class and meets once a week, and one is an online class, but still. I want my summer off too!

But alas, I must push forward. At first I had set my goal to finish my BA before we left this post. My husband’s slot is a three-year slot, and we have been here for a little over two years. So, we both figured he would come down on orders in late summer/early fall, and we’d be off to our new adventure. Well, didn’t quite happen that way. He ended up coming down on orders already, but not until April 2013. He will be heading to Korea, and the kids and I will stay here until he returns, and then head to what will hopefully be our last post before retirement. So in reality, I have more time than I thought to finish my degree.

And being that I have more time, I can easily see slowing my pace. Why push to finish by next summer, when I will be here for another two years? Why not take the summer off and enjoy time with your kids? And my answer is this: it has taken me long enough to get here and I don’t want to take even longer to get to the end of this road. And also, I really want to be done with school!

Taking two months off just adds two months later on and I don’t want to do that. I have a goal. A goal that is attainable. A goal that is in sight. A goal that I have worked towards for a long time. No stopping now!

Besides, I have evenings to work on my assignments, not to mention all the times my kids are playing with their friends during the day. But even knowing this, I still can’t help thinking, ‘I want my summer off too!’ Oh, to be a kid again!

One of the most common excuses I hear when I ask spouses why they don’t go back to school is, ‘I am too old to go back’. Why do people do this to themselves? Why do they think they are too old to do anything?

I read an article a few weeks ago about a 90-year-old man who finally learned to read. He had gone his whole life not knowing the written word, never having read a book, read a bill, nothing. It would have been so easy for him to say he was too old, that he was at the end of his life. What was the point? Instead, he made a goal and he met it, despite his age. If he can do that, why can’t you?

I am not going to sit here and tell you that the thought hasn’t crossed my mind. While I have taken most of my classes online, I have had a few courses in a classroom, including a recent class in public speaking. As we gave introductory speeches we wrote about our fellow classmates, it hit me. I am one of the oldest people in the class. There was one woman who graduated from high school a year before me, and another the year before that. But, all I heard during the speeches was that this person was 18 and graduated in 2011, or this person was 19 and graduated in 2010. What am I doing here with all these kids? I am old enough to be their mom - granted a very young, doesn’t look my age mom, but still! At that moment I regretted not going to college when I was younger.

Then I realized it’s never too late. My dad always had dreams of going back to school and becoming a teacher, but always had a reason not to go - work, us girls and so on. But he finally did it. He graduated from college the day before I got married, earning his bachelor’s degree in history at 45. And he didn’t stop there. He went on to get his master’s and fulfilled his dream of becoming a teacher. And let me tell you, as we sat at his graduation ceremony and watched the procession of students, well over half were older students and not the standard 20-something.

So my point is, don’t let something as silly as your age stop you from getting an education. Quite a few of my friends have gone back to school, and while they do wish they had done it when they were younger, they are thankful that they decided to go back. You don’t need to jump in full force either. Start with a class or two and see how it goes. Even if you aren’t sure what you are interested in, take a class and see what sparks your interest. I know a lot of us have other obligations, so a full load might not be possible. But the sooner you start, the sooner you will finish and that feeling of accomplishment is well worth it. I am proud of myself for going back and I am proud that my kids see me going as well. So I guess my question is, what’s stopping you?

 I am the perpetual student. That’s honestly how I feel sometimes. I began my journey towards my bachelor’s degree in 2004. Yes folks, eight years ago, and I am still in school. Thanks to PCS’s I had the task of completing different requirements at the different colleges as I transferred. Not to mention, I changed my major twice. It all adds up to a degree that seems to be taking forever.

I have been a SAHM (stay at home mom) since I was six months pregnant with my son, who is now 13. So as you can see, I have been out of the workforce for some time. But I knew I would be returning eventually, and what I lacked in employment, I wanted to make up for in education. I didn’t want to return to the workforce with nothing. The jobs I held in food service and retail were great when I was in high school and a young 20-something, but they aren’t what I want to do with my life now that the big 4-0 is up the street and around the corner! When I start working again, I want to pursue a career, not just have a job.

So as I said, I began my journey in the fall of 2004. We were stationed at Fort Carson, and I finally decided to go back to school. Even though I knew it would be some time before I sought employment, as my son was turning 6 and our daughter had just turned 1. I figured it gave me plenty of time, and boy did I need it! Accounting was going to be my major, but I soon found out, it wasn’t all I thought it was going to be. So after a wasted semester, I changed my major to teaching. Not quite sure why I went that route, but I did. After another semester of pursing a major I wasn’t 100 percent in love with, I changed again.

The criminal justice field is one that I have always been fascinated with, and should have been pursuing from the beginning. I realized this after two semesters of college, and knew that’s what I wanted to do.  Finally! I have a plan! So with a new education plan, I am on the right road. But I should have known there would be another bump. PCS orders arrived, and we we’re off to Fort Bragg. Somehow two years passed before I returned to school in the fall of 2008, and while most everything transferred from my school in Colorado, their criminal justice requirements were much different, so it was almost like starting from scratch. But that was ok. From what I had heard, Bragg was the ‘black hole’ of posts, and it sounded like we would be there forever. Plenty of time to at least finish my associate’s degree, or so I thought. Remember that bump we hit earlier? After only two and a half years at Bragg, we hit it again. Orders to Fort Leonard Wood arrived. Another post. Another college. Another transfer. This is getting old.

I transferred as soon as we arrived, as to not waste time like I had when we arrived at Bragg. With three semesters under my belt from Carson, and two from Bragg, I figured I wouldn’t have many classes left. To my surprise, the community college here had no criminal justice major, just a general associate’s which required a whole different set of classes. Pretty much everything transferred, but I still had quite a few core classes left. I began in the fall of 2010, and finally earned my associate’s degree in December 2011! Now, on to my bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice Administration which is where I stand today.

I transferred to my current college, and began in the spring of 2012. I just finished my second quarter, and am really enjoying it so far. All but six of my 90 credits transferred, so I was incredibly lucky there. The only hiccup that I have encountered is the requirement for 36 junior/senior class credits must be taken here in order to graduate, and I only had 24 junior/senior credits left to take. So, I have to declare a minor in order to get those remaining 12 credits. But that’s ok, because my minor, Crime Scene Technician, is something that completely interests me, and just gives me another avenue to travel when it comes time to seek employment.

So as you can see, it has been a long, interesting and, at times, frustrating road. But despite all the roadblocks, I am so thankful that I did make the decision to go back to school. Ideally I would have done all this before I got married, but life doesn’t always go as planned. Not to mention, I was in no frame of mind to go to school when I was younger. School was not a priority. So in that sense I am thankful that I waited. And as long of a wait as it has been, I finally am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.