It's
waiting for you... it's something big and black and scary. It lurks
in the darkness outside your door.
It's called
fear. It's fear of the unknown. It's fear of going out into the
college world to learn new things. It's wanting to stay inside where
it is safe and warm and comfortable... a world you know... a world
you excel in. It's being a
"stick-a- potamus" afraid to venture out.
Why take a chance?
Why shake up your life? Why now just sit there? Don't go out there
and face a world you don't know.
I have just
finished 10 fun-filled years of college, so I have decided to share
with you what it is actually like being... well... the older student.
I can tell you in one simple word, "It's GREAT."
It all begin
one day when I was sitting on the floor scanning through some old
magazines. An old yearning roared through my veins, "I want
to paint." I had wanted to be a painter for the first 17 years
of my life. But when it came to college, my Mother... wanted me
to be an accountant.
No, I am not
an accountant. Mother does not always know best.
But her advice
did point me in a direction away from art. I turned into a nerd,
a scientist, a mathematician, a computer programmer.
So years later,
here I was sitting on the floor wishing I could go get a paint brush
and race across the painting canvas with my ideas.
There were too
many questions in my mind, "What paint should I use? What should
I paint on?" The realization crossed my mind that I knew how
to draw and paint, after all I had drawn, painted and constructed
3-D models from age 5 to 17. It had been my life, but I did not
have the technical knowledge I needed.
I wasn't 17
any more and I was certainly a different person, but inside there
was still that "artist" who demanded to be let loose.
I followed the
only option I had to help the artist. I had to go back to college.
I got out a college catalog and looked down the list of classes.
I thought I was too old... I thought my mind wasn't as good as it
had once been... I had not taken tests in years... I had no idea
how to write a term paper. AND I thought the younger students wouldn't
like me. To me that seemed like quite a hurdle to overcome. There
was apprehension, some fears and a lump in my throat, but I had
no choice, the artist kept yelling.
A few weeks later, there I was in college with paint dripping off
my clothes, charcoal smeared across my finger tips and a great big
smile on my face.
What happened
to my fears? Well... I learned the way things "really are"
in college. The students DID like me. I was a part of the group.
Actually, I was usually one of the more popular students in the
class. I was one of them. They treated me as an equal. We laughed
and studied together. There was no generation gap. Mostly we were
drawing and painting and having a good time.
There were struggles
in some classes like being required to learn every painting by Claude
Monet, when it was painted, everything about his life and all the
details about the world that surrounded him. How did I do on these
tests? I had the highest grade in the classroom. Let me tell you
a little secret. As an adult you are much better prepared for college
than most of the younger students.
Younger students
seem to believe in "effortless learning."
"If it
isn't easy, don't do it. Don't, exert yourself."
"Heck why not sleep until noon. All this studying is so tiring."
"After all, it is the professor's fault if I don't make a good
grade."
And the young
students tend to believe in "minimalization."
"Do the
minimum amount of work required to get a passing grade."
"C's are okay, why do more work just to make an A."
"It's only a grade, who cares."
You can see,
that as an adult, the competition is not all that overwhelming.
You have already been to "the school of hard knocks."
You know how to put some effort into the things you want to accomplish.
You have already faced the "real world." You are much
better prepared to get good grades than young students who are accustomed
to having their parents doing everything for them.
I found that
in most of my classes there was a big gap in the grades among students.
The older students were at the top of the grade scale with high
grades. There was a gap and then the younger students grades appeared.
Let me repeat
that: "The older students in college, most of the time, scored
much higher in classes than the younger students." In most
classes I found that it was the older students who helped the younger
students.
I remember one
assignment when we had to write a term paper. When it was time to
hand back the papers, the professor stood in front of the class
and lectured us on how bad the papers were. She accused us of never
having taken an English class in our lives. To say the least, she
was upset about the papers.
She placed my paper on my desk with a frown on her face. I was terrified
to look at my grade. I don't take failure very well. As she lectured,
my paper sat there on my desk face down.
After 15 minutes,
the curiosity was too much, I had to know. I flipped up the corner
of the paper and read, " 'A' good work!" I had to wonder,
if I got the highest possible grade and I had not been in school
since the last dinosaur laid a golden egg, then what on earth had
the other students done to write such bad papers.
When the next
assignment was given, I saw the same teacher in the hall. She asked
how my paper was coming and I replied that I had not started yet.
She fussed at me for waiting too long and then she said, "What
grade did I give you on the last paper?".
I said, "You
gave me an A."
She responded,
"Oh, I don't give A's. You must know how to write a very good
paper."
So... maybe
the fears adults have about going back to school are not valid.
I have already
told you what I discovered.
The young students
considered me an equal.
Older students scored higher on tests.
Older students wrote better term papers.
Oh, about that
pesky computer you fear.
I took computer
class after computer class... laughed through all the classes...
made the best friends I ever had... and scored the highest grades
In the end I
am sure if you are an adult returning to school, you will walk out
the door with overwhelming confidence and bulging with "oodles"
of self esteem that says, "Look at me. Look what I can do."
Raise you hands
up to the sky. Jump up in the air and yell, "I did it!"
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