Birthdays: A Time to Set Goals and Reevaluate

Yesterday was my birthday. It was a monumental one - a turning point where I realized there is no turning back (not that I have the option). Two years ago before I decided to attend college, I felt that I had accomplished everything I cared to accomplish. In fact, I felt ahead of the pack, I enjoyed bragging and impressing others with all I had accomplished at such a young age. I felt secure with the things I had conquered and where I stood in society.

Sadly, I no longer feel that way. While my employment status has not changed (in fact I now hold a higher position than I did prior to enrolling in college classes), my ownership of essential property hasn’t changed, and my marital status hasn’t changed, my GOALS have changed. Its not that I am any less of a person than I was two years ago, in fact I would say I am a better person now. At the time I felt as though I conquered everything I wish to conquer I really did not have any goals (after all, I had conquered everything!) But now I have both short term goals and long term goals and I couldn’t help but feel that I was behind on accomplishing my goals. Most people at my age had already accomplished the goals I had set for myself.

I spent most of the day thinking about how I had gotten so behind, and how everyone my age seemed so far ahead. I thought about the new associate my firm is interviewing and realize it is very likely that he is younger than me. Now that my goal is to not only finish my bachelor’s degree but to complete a 3-year J.D. program, I feel I have a long way to go.

Today, the day after my birthday, I decided that I must swipe this negative thinking from my mindset. Instead, I focused on the things that I have accomplished and the reasons why for me, accomplishing my collegiate goals later in life is more ideal. I find that I am much more responsible than traditional undergraduate students, I take it very seriously. I also find that I have mastered the skill of time management (between working full time and school full time this is necessary for success). I also realized that I APPRECIATE college and higher education so much more than a lot of traditional students.


My doggie bag that I would like others to take from this post is that instead of being down on ourselves about not having accomplished our goals, we should first look at the things we have accomplished, and then list the reasons why it is actually BETTER that we are accomplishing our goals perhaps slightly later in life than others. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. And who are we to scorn ourselves for not being on a particular track or checklist. If we get behind, big deal. What matters is that we DO accomplish our goals, whatever those goals might be, and that it is okay if those goals change overtime.

I did it!

I did it!!! I am now officially a ceritfied paralegal! This is not only exciting for me because it is a great accomplishment that I spent 2 years working very hard at, but it is a big deal because had it not been for my enrolling in my local university's paralegal certificate program, I would never have decided to pursue my bachelors, much less work toward law school. So kudos to me and kudos to all of you that are working toward your goals!

Very Cool Scholarship Site

As a non-trad, I've had some issues finding scholarships that aren't so focused on full-time, traditional, low income students. I could literally get a scholarship book with thousands upon thousands of scholarships, and after 5 hours of weeding out all the ones I don't qualify for, come up with two or three. I'm willing to put in the hard work, but I have found a site that narrows it down for you, and even notifies you when there is a new scholarship added that you meet the criteria for.

The site is http://www.fastweb.com/

Its free to register and use, it does take some time to go through the Q & A's but this is worth the extra time, because it narrows the scholarship results down to only the scholarships you are eligible for, which saves time in the long run.

Writing for Comics!?

As an adult, full-time working student, I often find myself having to take whatever class fits a given requirement that will actually fit my working schedule. This means, I really miss out on taking classes of interest, and am just stuck taking whatever class fits my schedule. So after speaking with my advisor and trying to juggle around the schedule, I am enrolled to take a class which meets the "arts, aesthetics, and creativity" general education requirement. The problem is, the topic is "Writing for Comics." I've never even picked up a comic book in my life!!!

Complications of being a Full-Time Student and Full-Time Legal Assistant

Non-traditional college students are faced with many challenges that other "traditional" college students do not even comprehend. Not necessarily in order of importance, here are a few off the top of my head:

1. Very few scholarships are available for part-time students; most non-traditional students who must work to put food on the table do not have enough time in their already busy and complicated schedules to attend a full-time academic program.

2. Even if you can get a scholarship as a part-time student or if you do attend college full-time, if you work full-time, and even worse, if you hold a good paying job, your chances of getting a scholarship go out the window if you make more than $15,000 a year, which most non-traditional, adult, working students do. Unfortunately, the fact we often have mortgages or high rent payments, car payments, insurance premiums to pay, hungry tummies to feed, which all leave us pennyless and poor, most college financial aid offices look at us as though we must be nuts for asking for any money!

3. When the heck do we have time to get the homework/studying done!? As if working 40+ hours a week and attending classes was hard enough, I spend an average of 8 to 10 hours every week studying. Time management is key. I also try to find ways to study whenever I find myself with a few minutes to spare. In fact, this semester I am taking a class on real estate law which requires a lot of reading from a very thick textbook. My intention is to take the book to Staples or Office Max, have them unbind the book, scan it into an electronic format which can be read in Adobe/Acrobat so that I can sneak some reading in on my smartphone while on the go.

4. It is getting harder and harder to refrain from strangling these snot-nosed clueless 18 and 19 year old kids every time they claim they are just too busy to complete assignments (especially when working on group projects). Just the other day I heard a young lady say she had to drop a class because she has way-overextended herself. Hopeful I had found someone I could relate to, I chimed in and said, "yeah, I know what ya mean!" She then added that she feels so much better now only taking 2 classes. I asked what else she does when she's not at school (assuming she would say she has a job or volunteers). She said mostly sleeping and hanging out with friends!!!