Matriculation

My mother was the valedictorian of her graduating high school class. I told you she was intelligent. Of course I delighted in telling her that it was not too difficult. There were three students in her graduating class.

I did not fare as well as she did. There were almost 1000 graduates in my class. My grades were high but there were other people who were awarded the honors.

Both of us married the same year we graduated and that was the end of our educations. Mom was so disappointed that I did not go to college. I was too. But at that time being married meant you were supposed to be a wife and in due time a mother.

So time went on. My mother had seven children me being the oldest. She nurtured us and we grew to be adults with families of our own. I had four children who of course were a bit younger than hers.

One day I stopped by my mother's house after I had picked the children up from school. She looked at me and said, "I went and signed up for college today. You need to go tomorrow."

I had no choice. Mom told me to do it so I did as did my youngest sister.

The three of us ended up with several classes together. Because we had been out of school for some time we needed the 110 classes. They were above entry level classes but below the more advanced classes. So English 110, Algebra 110, etc.

We were able to ride together for most of our classes which was nice because I did not have a car at the time. When I had a class that one of the others did not I had to take the bus.

One of our classes (and our favorite) was an English class. It was quite basic dealing with grammar and punctuation as well as some writing. Often the instructor would write something on the board with no capitalization or punctuation and have us write it correctly.

Sometimes he gave us a topic and had us write about it for say 20 minutes. Then he would have us read them to the class. It was interesting to see the different ways of looking at a simple topic.

I began thinking I would major in computer sciences. I cannot begin to tell you how boring I find flow charts. I switched to accounting and business management.

I am a born paper pusher. I would be perfectly happy with a job that required sorting and filing.  At any rate I began to do some research (a little late don't you think?) and realized that the whole area was glutted with accountants and unemployed accountants.

It was about that time that my husband left for good. I had four children and I needed to bring in more money to support them. I dropped out of college.

Once my children were older I went back to school. By then I changed courses again. I enrolled in a Natural Resources package of classes.

These classes were taught by guest instructors who were employed by the federal government. Upon completion of these classes we would be qualified for a job with the government.

What appealed to me the most about this course was that there was such a wide variety of careers available. Of course you could go on to train to be a forest ranger or to work in a fish hatchery. Perhaps your tastes run more toward the sciences and research; there are opportunities.

The propaganda field appealed to me. It ranged from writing those informational pamphlets that you can send for in Pueblo, Colorado, to writing public service announcements, to coming up with promotional ideas for various governmental agencies.

Once again I had to leave school. I only had one Economics class left to get my degree but I could not stay. Now they have changed the requirements so I would have more than a semester of classes to complete now.

The one thing I do well is learn. I cannot do but boy can I learn. And I love it. My poor little brain is packed full of totally useless information.

One of my favorite things to do is surf the internet. I find a subject that interests me and I proceed to learn everything I can about it. That is my major form of entertainment.

So I have some college. I enjoyed it but I still had children to take care of. The kids always come first. Maybe someday I will take a few online classes. I will not go back to school because too many younger people need those seats so they can go on to more productive lives. But I will never stop learning.