Three years ago, I was finishing with home schooling of my second child. As I helped him through the final phases, I began to realize that the time I had spent with him could now be used to study for myself. It had been thirty-seven years since I had been in college, but maybe this was something to be considered, especially since I would have a tuition waiver. I ordered my transcript in early January 2009 in order to see what would transfer from Grace College to Southeastern University. My son had enrolled for a couple classes as a dual-enrolled student, going through the summer. He worked hard! He learned how to study.
I had been working a lot more with him during fall 2008. Together we took an online SAT one Saturday before he took the Real Thing. Then, realizing he could improve his score if we worked hard on algebra, we did math every night after I got home from work. Drew retook the SAT in the spring and raised his score enough to get the highest university scholarship and the highest Bright Futures scholarship from our state. As that was completed, I began to realize (as early as December) that once he was done I might almost have the time required for study in order to earn my degree. I had been mulling it over for a few weeks when someone asked me, “So, when are you going to finish your degree?” and the wheels began to turn. I wondered what would transfer to SEU. I started asking questions and decided to request my transcript from Grace.
In early January another person said, “You should be a teacher.” I countered with, “I don’t think the degrees offered online would be for teaching.” She said, “But if you get your Master’s you could teach.” Wouldn’t that be amazing to become a professor down the road? Well . . . Step 1was: get the transcript. Step 2: talk to the online director. Step 3: try just one class in the summer or fall. I knew that some students worked full time and took 12 to 21 hours. I didn’t want to drag it out over four years. I wanted to get it done. I realize now I could have started with the next open class session, but it simply did not occur to me, perhaps because I was focused on home schooling. So I started in fall 2009, full time.
The online options were Business (Marketing or Management) and Human Services. For some reason, I had a disparaging attitude toward Human Services, and it seemed to make sense to major in Business, because I worked in the Business Office. But by the end of January I wasn’t so sure. I decided to have lunch with a coworker who was majoring in Human Services.
Then I had my college transcript audited against the Human Services major (instead of Business). Two of the courses that were electives in the Business major were core requirements in Human Services. I had never wanted to earn a degree in counseling, but Human Services had some career options that seemed realistic for me, and I was beginning to realize that I was not interested in a career in business. Yes, we have run home businesses all of our married life, and a business course or two could possibly help me in that area. And, yes, I am good at detail and could certainly succeed in that. But motivating, inspiring, and guiding individuals interested me more. Perhaps that is Human Services, without the counseling degree. I took some online tests—personality, career choice, and career satisfaction, which seemed to confirm Human Services. I began talking to every person I knew who was in the HS major to learn more about why they chose that major. In the midst of my considerations, three people in one week told me I should teach. So I began to think of earning my master’s in Human Services with a goal of teaching at Southeastern.
That was the background, and now I will graduate in less than three weeks, December 16.
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