It’s the most exciting time in your life… for a moment. Then reality hits and you think to yourself, “What am I doing here”? It then becomes the best of times and the worst of times right at the moment you are about to step into your first class of the day ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY. Everyone in the classroom is young enough to be your daughter or son. These youngsters have been in school over the last 15 years and you haven’t been a student yourself, in well over 15 years.

You will doubt your reasons for wanting to return more times than you care to admit, but you didn’t finish school all of those years ago and now it is time to pay the piper. It will be a very fun, exciting time and give you the opportunity to learn and explore and sharpen your mind, but it will also be tough.

If you have children still at home, you will notice they are instantly “needy.” Your husband or wife will be more “needy.” In fact, everyone will be too NEEDY! So what, let them learn to do things for themselves. It won’t hurt your husband to run to Wal-Mart to pick up needed items and your teenager daughter can hand wash her sweater from GAP as easily as you can. It really isn’t the fact that your family will need you more, it is the fact that they will want to know you are there if they do. So they test you. McDonalds and Burger King will no longer be their choice cuisine, they will want more home-cooked meals, too bad, it was MickieD’s before Mom went to college, and it can be the Golden Arches until Mom finishes.

This time you can do it. It’s OK to let everyone else’s petty needs wait. Sure, there will still be times that a situation arises that your classes will have to be skipped, but very few if you plan ahead and let your husband and children know that you don’t expect major deviations from your school schedule.

It is harder to be an adult student than it is to be an 18 year old, still wet behind the ears, young pup. You have responsibilities to take care of at home. These classmates have a nice cold Keg awaiting them at yet another party. Your Children and Husband are waiting on you to come straight home after class. These kids don’t have any particular place to be.

You struggle to find the time to write your APA style papers, while these classmates breeze into class and announce it took them all of a couple of hours to complete. It isn’t fair you think to yourself. Then , before you give way to a pity party , you think back to your younger years in college, oh sure it was the best of times, like no other time, but now you have a family to love and take care of… and they’re at home waiting on you. After all, they are the reason you went back to school.