Where I am now

My name is Rose. I am married to the military and have been for just over 13 years. I have three beautiful and sometimes very loud children, ranging in age from 22 months to 10 years old. We live in Northern California and have been here for almost 4 years. We are not terribly happy to be here, but it looks as though we may be here for a few more years.

I started college at 17, the way you are supposed to do it. I was a pre-med major, although my high school guidance counselor called that a "pipe dream", and all these years later, I remember her words. The summer after graduating from high school in New York, I went to a four-year university in West Virginia and left after a semester. It seemed to me that the school worked so hard to entertain the kids, that the academics were not the focus and it felt like a waste of time to be there. Off to warm and sunny, San Diego, CA, and moved in with Dad, intending to go to school full-time, working part-time, but the reverse happened and school became part-time and work was full-time. The ratio of single men to single women in San Diego in 1993 was reportedly 5:1. I fell in love, moved to Hawaii, and got married. Never to attend school again, until now.

Yes, at 35 years old, after telling myself that I was happy being home with the kids, I made the decision to go back to school, just to see if I could do better the second time around. I started a few months ago. Due to my husband's military status, I was able to enroll in school for free.

It never occurred to me that it might be a challenge getting through the actual work. There was so much schedule shifting to arrange for childcare and the kids' school pick-ups. I had to buy $750 worth of textbooks. I wasn't worried even in the least bit about the work being too hard. I'd always managed to multi-task before. In high school, I worked sometimes two jobs, plus babysitting and school activities. I always considered myself pretty smart. My first semester was a wake-up call.

I had registered for three classes, all of them with labs. I was determined to get through all of them, but by the middle of October, I had dropped two of the classes. One was too hard. The other was at night and created too many problems for my kids. I stayed in Biology, which was 5 days per week and required a lot of time. I managed to make it through and finish with an A in that class, but so much regret about dropping the other two.

At this rate, I may not have my degree finished until I'm 40.