My wife, Tina, and I decided about two years ago that it would be best if we just bit the bullet, I quit working, we move in with my parents--awkward, I know--in order to save expenses, and I went to school full-time so that I could finish and we could move on with our lives. So in that two years we got our affairs in order, so to speak, and I finished the AA degree that I had been toiling on, part-time, for years. Finishing even an Associates degree is difficult when you're taking one class per semester, hence the decision to drop everything and finish school. At the rate I was going it was more likely that I would receive an AARP card before I earned a Bachelor's degree.
I'll save the awkward tales of being 36 years old, married and living with your parents for another day. Right now I want to talk about being a full-time college student for the first time. I also want to try and avoid lecturing anyone, giving you the "see what happens if you don't stay focused" or "don't make the same mistakes I made" speeches. Personally, I think the best way to learn is to make mistakes and I'm glad my parents, my mother in particular, allowed me to find that out. Would I like to be further along in life than I currently am? Absolutely. Do I think my wife deserves better than living with her in-laws while her late bloomer husband gets his shit together? Without a doubt. Do I realize that there are some of you reading this thinking, "What a LOSER!" Yes. And believe me, I think the same thing about myself almost daily. It's a blow to the ego every time I have to tell someone I meet on campus that I live with my parents. But it is what it is.
Did I mention that I live in Boynton Beach and have a 136 mile round trip commute two or three days a week?
So why this blog?
Well, I realized after a few weeks on campus that I really am an invisible student. Age wise, I fall in between the typical post high school student and the late in life, tired of my career and want to find something new while I still have time student. It seems that the few students that I have encountered that are my age are working on a second or third degree, not their first.
So why do I say invisible? Well, I get ignored when walking down the GC halls. When the Greeks are recruiting for rush I don't really expect anyone to hand me one of those little cards asking me to rush Pike or Sig Ep so I don't take offense when they don't. This isn't the movies and I'm not Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell or Luke Wilson. If someone does invite me to a party on frat row its like Christmas time to me (it happened once last spring, almost certainly by mistake) I'm too old to be a frat guy, I know that.
But when student elections were going on at the end of spring, not one of those SGA hopefuls handed me one of their cards, buttons or t-shirts. No one wanted my vote. Is their some age cap unbeknownst to me? Can the 30+ students not vote? Well, I vote for Paige (sp?) and Adam, that much I remember.
I went to the spring football game, too. Over and over I was solicited for season tickets and when I told the solicitors that I was a student they looked at me as if I was joking. To top that off, most of them called me sir. SIR! I'm 36 years old for Christ's sake, I'm not a sir. Speaking of the spring football game, I will be getting to the obvious lack of support for our athletic programs by the student body in another post. You guys do realize that you get to watch Division I college sports for FREE don't you? My wife graduated from Florida and believe me, the students up there would kill for the opportunity to see the Gators for free. Most of them have to pin their football ticket hopes on a lottery system. We've got it made at FIU.
Well, this post was supposed to be a short introduction and I've rambled on. I don't know how much I'll blog until fall semester starts. After all, I won't start publicizing this blog on campus until then. Right now no one even knows this blog exists.
If anyone does stumble across this, please leave me comments.
Later,
ELI3
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