Never Too Late, No Matter Who Says What

I overheard someone say it again this past weekend: "I'm just too old to do that. It's way too late for me to try." Unless the man was talking about sky-diving or dating Paris Hilton, I can't agree. No matter what age we are, there is always time and energy to do important and meaningful work in this world. It's simply up to each of us to find it.

The really amazing thing I hear a lot from younger adults, in their 20s and 30s, is that they just don't think they can manage going back to school, even for an associate degree. From what I've seen over the past couple of years at St. Martin's University, the house, the job, the spouse, the sports team, even the kids, are all excuses that can be turned into assets with a little thought and planning.

Not everything will work out perfectly. Elsewhere in this blog i discuss some techniques for managing childcare logistics. Even with the best planning, though, everyone has childcare glitches that make stray days here and there really challenging. On the other hand, your child may get to meet your classmates. I particularly cherished getting to meet a little guy named Sawyer, who charmed an entire Women's Lit class with his patience and sunny smile.

Admissions deadlines are negotiable: check online, and then walk into the registrar's office and ask for help.

As for finances, have you asked? Check out scholarships, grants, and loans offered by your school, and go in and talk to the financial aid officer. You do not have to take out a bunch of loans to get through school; if you do the work and show you can excel at your studies, you can get grants and scholarships that will ease the way. Alternatively, you can continue to work and pay for each class as you go, taking one or two courses per session.

Or, you can get all the way to your 80th birthday, and wonder what you did with your spare time all the way back in the day as you get dressed for your shift as a greeter at Space-Mart because you were always too busy to get that degree.

Solitude

In order to complete a college degree, especially if you're a single adult, you have to be able to adjust to a lot of time spent alone. For hours on end, it will be just you, a book, and a computer. You have to make that commitment to spend the time, even with the boring classes, in order to get to the goal, that degree that will open up some major new doors.

In the meantime, you're going to pass up on a lot of things that used to be important to you: Dancing with the Stars, Project Runway, start-to-finish coverage of the Masters, the Superbowl, whatever. You won't be going out to drinks and dinner with your buddies nearly so often. It may even happen that while everyone else in the family goes sight-seeing during winter vacation, you stay back at the motel room, reading and taking notes for the paper that's due the first week of school.

This can be hard for a lot of people. Skipping a birthday party can make you unpopular with some family members, who may not readily understand what's going on. I had an advantage: I had to move to enroll in school, so most people can't just drop by for dinner any more: my friends mostly live over 60 miles away. Plus, because I'm in school full time, and looking for a part-time job, I haven't had any time to meet new people away from campus.

Yes, it gets a little lonely. Going to school later in life isn't for everyone. On the other hand, by studying hard, staying with the books, and focusing on something a little more lasting than America's Got Talent, it can feel like you're joining something eternal.

Think back to all the scholars in the world who studied night after night, trying to understand the world around them. Bacon, Aquinas, Carroll, and a long parade of others, both legendary and unknown, confronted solitude and learned to live with it, in order to reach out to new fields of knowledge and conquer them. They studied through Whitman's "transparent night," and tried not to suffer from their aloneness.

I've become familiar with solitude, although I can't say it's my friend. It doesn't even like me, but I'm learning to turn it to my advantage. At times I even consider it a resource -- a quiet, calm place in the soul and in the home away from the noisy insanity of urban life. While I'm not about to become an anchoress, it's clear that solitude can help the mind and the spirit focus on what's real.

You may not ever become Albert Schweitzer, or even Douglas Adams, but if you have the chance to study, even if it means spending more time in solitude than you'd like, do it. The chance may not come again, and you may discover dimensions of solitude you might never otherwise recognize.

It's Still Not Too Late

A few weeks back, I forgot an important possibility for anyone who wants to get started on a college degree, or just wants to get more education in their field of interest. My friend Emilie, via Facebook, reminds me that there is still another alternative to appearing on your chosen college campus every week. Use what's right in front of you to take classes online.

St. Martin's University, the school I'm attending, offers an ever-growing list of online classes, as many private, non-profit colleges do. More classes become available every semester as professors discover that people do learn online, and that teaching this way can be productive for the instructor as well. Students who participate in this kind of instruction successfully are motivated and interested -- which describes you, right?

This type of instruction is also available through state-funded schools like the University of Washington, Washington State University, and the community college system. These schools have a lot going for them: they cost less than similar programs available through for-profit schools, like the ones advertised on television, and the public and non-profit private colleges are accredited.

Accreditation is very important if someday you hope to actually get a degree. The for-profit school are not usually accredited, so any work you do through them is never going to be added to your transcript as you pursue an academic degree.

Also, student recruitment at the for-profit schools tends to be through what's called the marketing department.

Online classes at a university will still require the whole application and enrollment process, but once you've filled out most of those forms, you won't have to do it again. You'll be able to work on your studies as you have time, and you'll be able to ask questions via email or dedicated Web sites set up for each class. Scholarships are available in some programs.

While some distance learning does require that you show up on campus occasionally, that depends on what you are studying. For example, the University of Washington School of Nursing distance learning program for ARNPs calls for some face time with the instructor, but some classes like introductory philosophy from Centralia College are totally online.

This is a way to get all those irritating required classes in math and botany out of the way before you start going to the campus for those advanced classes in your major. You do not have to take all the online classes from the same school, as long as you're willing to pay for separate official transcripts from each one when you apply for admission at the school where you finally get your degree.

So, are you going over to Google right now to look for your next online class, or what?