COMMENTARY: "Away So Long....."

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth. No, I did not contract some terminal disease and die. No, I did not "quit" my blog. But I did start school. College, to be more precise. So here I am, working, going to school, being a mom, being a wife, running a household.....no wonder I haven't had any time to post anything! I have been reading (when I can) and have read some good books. I'll get the reviews on here as soon as I can, but I just wanted to take a moment to.....what....vent, maybe?

I knew it was going to be tough going back to school after nearly 15 years. I knew it was going to be taxing on my personal life, a challenge as relates to my work life, and generally-speaking, I did know things were going to be different. But I just didn't realize how much it was going to take out of me. I'm not 18 anymore (duh!) and these long hours are tough! I'm finally finding ways to manage my time more efficiently, but there are certain things that are definitely not getting as much attention as they used to (housework being number one on that list *sigh*).

I love school, though. I love that I'm back in school. It feels so good to be learning again. My number one goal in life was always to graduate from college. It may not seem like a big deal, especially now that I'm pretty well established in a career and probably won't be changing that, but it is a big deal. Neither of my parents, nor any of my siblings, graduated from college (most didn't even attend any college). My sister, Emily, however, has been a huge inspiration for me on this whole back-to-school thing. She is in nursing school (and working and being a mom herself) and she is doing awesome! She will be graduating long before I will and I'm so proud of her. But when she started, I kind of started looking at my own life and said, "if she can do it, so can I." And so here I am, starting back in college and doing what I always promised myself I would do.

My first two classes are Intermediate Algebra (a class I have already taken and HATE that I have to be taking again....*sigh*) and Geography, which is, in actuality, not really a geography class so much as a liberal geo-political commentary on the world. I chuckle and shake my head in this class on a frequent basis. But the thing that makes me chuckle the most at school are the "kids" I'm in class with. Especially the "guy" who comes to class in bare feet (because he "doesn't like shoes") and the kid who listens to his ipod so loudly during class that I can hear all the lyrics two rows away (seriously, when did that become acceptable in the classroom?) So I have fun with the people-watching as much as anything else.

It's good to be learning, though. It's good to be exercising those brain-muscles that have been atrophying for so long. It's good to be doing this thing!