Posts
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Yes I Did!
Ever have a conversation with someone that changes your life? Maybe it is a quiet hello with a fellow reject that blossoms into a lifetime friendship. Maybe it is a flirtatious teasing with a boy that later becomes your husband. Maybe it is an "I'm sorry" that leads to a long and overdue road to forgiveness. Whatever the reason behind the conversation, I am sure we have all had one that has made an impact on our lives, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse; but always with a memory that stands out.
The past few days, I have been recalling a conversation I had with a woman who I am certain would have no idea who I am if I were to bump into her on the street today. A conversation that snowballed into a long, hard road of achievement for me.
In the summer of 2001, I was in the process of losing my job. A job that I enjoyed. A job that paid me really well. But most importantly, a job that allowed me the opportunity to send my children off to school in the morning and then welcome them home when they walked through the front door at 3:00 in the afternoon. A job that I was definitely sorry to be losing soon.
Knowing that the loss would be soon, but not knowing how soon, I was kind of lax in applying to every position posted in the newspaper. You see, I was being a little particular. I wanted the same things I was losing: enjoyment of the position and full time pay for full time work packed into part time hours. As expected, I was not having too much luck.
The last week of summer, I went to an outdoor wedding in New York and I struck up a conversation with a woman who was a classmate of the bride. It turns out she lived in the same town as I and was just starting her teaching career at the high school that I graduated from. She was enthusiastic and excited and it reminded me that teaching was always something I had thought about pursuing but never had the opportunity to dive into the required schooling. I mean how does the mortgage get paid if I am not working? The rest of the weekend I ran that question over and over in my head. On Monday morning, I went to the local college in search of an answer. As it turned out, I received an answer AND since I was already there, enrolled as a full time student for the upcoming semester; which started the next day. Nothing like jumping in full speed ahead.
The classes that my adviser and I chose were pretty specific. I had a broad range of interests - from computer programming to teaching - and I was on a semester by semester basis. Another words, I had no way of knowing how long I would be able to maintain full time student status so I tried to choose classes that may not be offered in the evenings. Computer programming, Intro to Psychology, Child Development, and Foundations of Education. My goal was simple: To do the best I can do in the time that I have. I mean really: full time school, full time mom, and working 25 - 30 hours per week until who knows when. My goal HAD to be simple.
Little did I know how often I would recite those words to myself over the course of that semester. To do the best I can do in the time that I have. As it turned out, the best I could do in the time that I had was a 4.0 at the end of the semester, along with a large thirst for more. More knowledge, more stress, and definitely more teaching and psychology classes. The two areas, according to my professors, that I had a natural intellect for.
And so it continued. Through the loss of my job, the loss of unemployment, the loss of my pride when I was forced to apply for food stamps and fuel assistance, the loss of a child that I had only begun to accept was growing in my belly, through the strength of my family and friends, through many seasons of travel hockey, travel soccer, gymnastics, lacrosse, etc, through the acceptance of another awesome job, through the pregnancy and delivery of another child, through sickness and many surgeries, through the loss of yet another great job, the loss of two very important people in my life, through the strong bonds of my friends, through the love of my children, but most importantly, through the tenacity to get through anything...it continued....right up until this past Saturday. When I graduated, Magna Cum Laude, from MCLA with a bachelors degree in Psychology.
The past few days, I have been recalling a conversation I had with a woman who I am certain would have no idea who I am if I were to bump into her on the street today. A conversation that snowballed into a long, hard road of achievement for me.
In the summer of 2001, I was in the process of losing my job. A job that I enjoyed. A job that paid me really well. But most importantly, a job that allowed me the opportunity to send my children off to school in the morning and then welcome them home when they walked through the front door at 3:00 in the afternoon. A job that I was definitely sorry to be losing soon.
Knowing that the loss would be soon, but not knowing how soon, I was kind of lax in applying to every position posted in the newspaper. You see, I was being a little particular. I wanted the same things I was losing: enjoyment of the position and full time pay for full time work packed into part time hours. As expected, I was not having too much luck.
The last week of summer, I went to an outdoor wedding in New York and I struck up a conversation with a woman who was a classmate of the bride. It turns out she lived in the same town as I and was just starting her teaching career at the high school that I graduated from. She was enthusiastic and excited and it reminded me that teaching was always something I had thought about pursuing but never had the opportunity to dive into the required schooling. I mean how does the mortgage get paid if I am not working? The rest of the weekend I ran that question over and over in my head. On Monday morning, I went to the local college in search of an answer. As it turned out, I received an answer AND since I was already there, enrolled as a full time student for the upcoming semester; which started the next day. Nothing like jumping in full speed ahead.
The classes that my adviser and I chose were pretty specific. I had a broad range of interests - from computer programming to teaching - and I was on a semester by semester basis. Another words, I had no way of knowing how long I would be able to maintain full time student status so I tried to choose classes that may not be offered in the evenings. Computer programming, Intro to Psychology, Child Development, and Foundations of Education. My goal was simple: To do the best I can do in the time that I have. I mean really: full time school, full time mom, and working 25 - 30 hours per week until who knows when. My goal HAD to be simple.
Little did I know how often I would recite those words to myself over the course of that semester. To do the best I can do in the time that I have. As it turned out, the best I could do in the time that I had was a 4.0 at the end of the semester, along with a large thirst for more. More knowledge, more stress, and definitely more teaching and psychology classes. The two areas, according to my professors, that I had a natural intellect for.
And so it continued. Through the loss of my job, the loss of unemployment, the loss of my pride when I was forced to apply for food stamps and fuel assistance, the loss of a child that I had only begun to accept was growing in my belly, through the strength of my family and friends, through many seasons of travel hockey, travel soccer, gymnastics, lacrosse, etc, through the acceptance of another awesome job, through the pregnancy and delivery of another child, through sickness and many surgeries, through the loss of yet another great job, the loss of two very important people in my life, through the strong bonds of my friends, through the love of my children, but most importantly, through the tenacity to get through anything...it continued....right up until this past Saturday. When I graduated, Magna Cum Laude, from MCLA with a bachelors degree in Psychology.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
