Mendolonium

Way back in January 2011 when I only had two children and still worked in Pasadena (and thus had a minimal commute) I resolved to take a college class that year.  Over the past two years I’ve tried to register for a class at our local community college nearly every semester.  Due to budget cuts, demand for classes far exceeds supply.  As a prospective student enrolling at the school for the first time I am the lowest on the totem pole of registration times.  Every semester, by the time my registration appointment came, every remotely desirable class was full.  I expect much the same to happen this spring semester but when I looked a week before my allotted time to register there were, finally, open seats available in a class that I wanted.  At exactly the appointed hour I nervously went online and registered for the class and got in!  I was, perhaps excessive, excited.  One week from today I start a lecture/lab class in microbiology.

I’ll be going to class two nights a week; unfortunately on the same days that I work which will mean that I will have very little time with my kids on those days.  It’s going to be hard on all of us but there isn’t any way for me to go back to school, work, and be a parent and expect things to stay the same.  Last night Jeff and I stayed up late and hammered out a convoluted schedule involving multiple school drop-0ffs and picks, carpools, early wake-ups, and late nights that results in us at least getting to all eat dinner together as a family every night of the week.  I somehow feel that as long as we can all gather together every day over food we’ll be alright.  I don’t promise that the food will be my most creative offerings; I think I might stretch the limits of how often grilled cheese should be fed to a child.  I did spend nearly every day of my vacation the past week filling our freezer with soups, pastas, breads, and muffins in preparation for the coming time crunch.  Our freezer hasn’t been this full since the week before Annie was born.

In truth, I feel more nervous about going to back to school than I did having a third child.  It’s been eight and a half years since I’ve been in school.  Looking back at college, difficult as it was, it now seems that without a job or three children and a house to take care of I must have had incredible freedom to manage my time.  I wonder how I am going to find the time to study and do homework?  I don’t want to be cocky, I expect this class to be a challenge.  I’m excited though; this could be the start of something great.  At the very least, I’ll know some microbiology.

If this blog remains silent from January 8 though May 5 you’ll know why.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013 at 12:01 am and is filed under Me, So What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.