I graduated. Again.

My family loves to joke about my somewhat long scholarly career. At the ripe old age of 48, which is not really that old when I think about it (mother nature is just playing a cruel trick with the calendar on me) I just graduated with my MSN degree in nursing. The joke is that when I was six years old my mom took me by the hand for my first day of school and said, "Come on, sweetie. You have to go to school." Mom says she didn't mean for the rest of my life. I graduated with a BA in communications first, swearing that I'd never go back to school. This was at the age of 21 when I suddenly decided I was filled with the knowledge only bestowed upon ancient wizards. At 30, I realized that I didn't know everything after all, and went back to school off and on for many years. During this time, I got half a business degree (I refused to retake literature so that my courses would be in sync. I graduated before the core curriculum was enforced, and I can be stubborn at times), minored in Forensics, took several writing courses, got my ADN degree in nursing, said I was done with school, then went and got my BSN and said I was done, and then went back AGAIN for my masters'.

The good news in all this is that once you get that ADN, which will cost you blood, sweat, tears, much of your sanity, and maybe your marriage (nursing school hatches life changes. In my class, 3 people got divorced, 2 girls got pregnant and were competing to see who would go into labor at graduation, one got married and several took up smoking), getting the BSN and MSN is really easy. Mine was all online, and other than taking lots and lots of time, along with the dreaded group projects, it really is pretty easy. Out of the 20-something courses I took for the last two, I made all A's with only two B's while working full-time. It can be done.

For graduation my mom made me promise I won't go back to school again (I won't) and my dad was mentioning something about me getting a PhD (no, thank you). I'm really done this time, except for writing courses and the like. I was just happy to graduate before I would need a walker to get to the stage with. Lots of people are now graduating high school and college at this time of the year. My best advice to the 20-year-olds graduating? Never say you'll never go back to school. After a few years, you may very well eat those words. And if your employer offers tuition reimbursement or any kind of help with school, you're an idiot not to take them up on it. A few workplaces still offer totally free tuition coverage for employees without them having to pay it up front and get reimbursed later. Since the pension plan has gone the way of the dinosaur, take advantage of any kind of educational assistance you can get for free. When I was a new nurse at UAB years ago, they totally covered my tuition for advanced pathophysiology. All I had to do was buy a used book. So that was like tax-free money since I never saw a bill for the class.

Think about it.