Back to school time

...at least it is for me.

Yeah, I'm almost 40 years old and work in a technology job with a lot of responsibility and all that - but I have never earned a college degree. I started working on a degree through correspondence courses when I was in the Navy years ago, but I didn't stick with it. I got a lot of technical training and had to write evaluations of my crew and various reports and proposals for work and that type of thing and I guess I did okay.

After I left the military I was able to get jobs passed on my certifications and work experience and that always seemed to take the place of actually earning a degree. I figured that was good enough and did not take advantage of tuition remission policies that my employers had until just a few years ago. I started attending a University and taking a few classes in English, History and Computer Science. I figured the English would help in my job as I was in a position to write more and more proposals, policies, and documentation.

I'm still going along slowly but surely and earning my credits with the hope of eventually getting that degree. I now work at the University and my tuition is completely covered, so I really have no excuse not to continue. However, I did pay out of my own pocket for 2 classes when I first started there and the benefit had not yet kicked in. No financial aid, just paid for it with the vacation pay I got when leaving the previous employer.

Now it's time to head back into the classroom where I am ofter the oldest person in the room - including the instructor. But that's okay, I have the life experience to understand what I need to take from these classes to help with my career and it seems to make more sense to me that it does for some of these 'kids'.