Well, I've been busy these past few months. One thing I put on my proverbial plate is a language class at a local community college."Why" at the age of 40-something am I taking a language class you may wonder? Maybe I'll answer that in more in another post, but what I put down on my school application that I was doing it to enhance my job skills. I am enhancing my job skills.
Anyhow, it's been fodder for at least a few blog posts.
Now, while I have been in college ministry for the past 20 years, being on a college campus with 20-somethings is not completely strange. In fact, there is something very familiar and comfortable about it.
For one thing, I am about the same age as the professor. Why I bet she has even had a little hot-flash or two, or at least memory lapses due to low estradiol levels that impair brain function. (I'm dying to ask her, but I promise to refrain.)
Another advantage is that I know how to study. It isn't hard. You just do all the homework, and all the extra-credit. If the teacher puts a practice test online, there's a good chance that will be the actual test. When the teacher says, "memorize this by Thursday" or know this vocabulary list by this day--take it seriously. Don't gamble and think, "maybe she'll forget." That is what I used to do when I was younger.
I also don't have the distraction of the boyfriend thing. I already have my husband and children. I am living the dream. The young men in my class could be my own sons. (hint: future blog post subject).
As an older person, I also have the advantage of perspective. Frankly, most of the people sitting around me are still trying to figure out their lives or perhaps put them back together. I don't think they realize that this class is important and that if they were to actually study, it would pay off. If they applied themselves at community college, got straight A's, and were involved in an student group or government on campus, they could get a scholarship to a 4-year college.
On the other hand, at a deeper level, I don't think they know how short their lives really are and that this class really doesn't matter in terms of eternity.
1 comments:
When I returned to college in my 30's I used lots of principles from "Where there's a will there's an A" and some brain power books, stuff I had not used in my earlier school days. I ended up in an Honor Society, something a perennial "C" student had never done. One thing that really worked was creating my own tests. If you take the position that everyday you are being given the material on the test three weeks from now, and you construct your own test based on that info, you will be more than ready when the day comes.
http://hubiegoode.blogspot.com
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