I am 41 years young, and have gone back to school, college! It was a decision that I should have made years ago, but if we live by “should haves”, we would never be content. The good point is that I am in college and it is great to be learning a career.

Managing time when going to college is hard, for anyone, but when a person hasn’t done much for several years, it can be more challenging. I wanted to write this to encourage others to do more with their life. We can do anything that we want to, if we only put our minds to it.

Going to college has been a dream of mine for a long time. I am disabled and I never really accepted that fact, although I am pretty sure that I am disabled. I could not keep a job, for mostly mental health reasons, such as bi-polar, but now I am in college, heading toward my third term and I am doing it, with “A”’s and anyone else can do this.

Accepting where we are and what we are in one thing, but we all know that on disability, there is not much for an income and we are always counting pennies, so to speak, but now this new adventure of college and feeling encouraged about the future is awesome!

I am taking the Accounting major, which leaves a lot of doors open to me, especially being a woman, because I have heard that there are not too many women in finance. It is mostly men in the Accounting and finance field. We need lots more women in this field. I am certain that there will always be a call for this type of work, with all of the businesses open and new ones opening every day, and a person can get done college and work at home, start their own business in this field. They can probably start working while they go to college.

I have been doing my studies online, too, which is great with the economy the way it is. One reason I waited to go to college, for so long, was that I did not think I could get much financial help, but I got grants and financial aid, and student loans, which have to be paid back, but most states let you wait until 6 months after college graduation to start making the payments for the student loans and these payments can be made for 25 years. Of course, we would want to pay our college student loans way before 25 years, but so many of us have the excuses to not go back to school and finances are one of the reasons why people do not move forward with dreams such as this. Please do not let that stop you. Please do not let the person you live with stop you either.

Years ago, the man I was with would not hear of it, only because he was afraid that I would find someone better than him, which he was right there (ha ha), but I did not do anything to improve my life and I lived my life for him. Big mistake! We all deserve to have our dreams and one of mine has always been going to college, and making the Dean’s list, I hope, and I am going to college at 41 years young, but I am doing it!

Managing home life and school takes time. Be patient with your self and your loved ones, and friends (who like to call and visit, like we do not have a life). What I have done, mentally, is told myself that when so and so goes out to run errands, or is outside working in the yard, I will do some studying. Sometimes, I wait until everyone has gone to bed. I schedule my online classes for the evening and then I know that everyone should be all taken care of by then and I can relax and go to class (seminar), and do my studying, tests, and anything else that I need to do for college, when everyone else sleeps. This is better than trying to plan and schedule my studying during the day time and knowing that people will be up and busy, needing me, or friends will be calling or dropping by to visit and I will only feel more stressed if I even try to study during the day time. It took me a few rough weeks, feeling like I was having stomach ulcers, but then I decided to do my college work around everyone else’s schedules instead of trying to make mine and have them adhere to mine. It is much easier this way.

I hope this article helps someone with something great! Thanks for reading!