I spent some time in Houston over the weekend and saw this sign on the University of Houston-Clear Lake campus. Seems like an appropriate warning to me.I've signed up for a writing workshop over at Journaling from the Heart. I'm not sure how much of my writing I'll be sharing here from working through those exercises but I am looking forward to participating. I have long been an introspective person, well aware of my interior state and my interior state is restless at the moment. One of the issues is that I am dissatisfied with my job. Another is that I am thinking about going back to school.
The details of how to do that, and what path to take are all a little foggy. I am only at the beginning of almost knowing I want to go back to school.
I am a thinker and a ponderer. Lord, have mercy, I am a thinker. My problem is, and always has been, making the transition from thought to action. I am also a dreamer who will take a dream and build it into such a grand and glorious fantasy that it seems impossible to achieve. I know that there is a suitable middle ground for me somewhere between the tentative statement, "I think I'd like to go back to school" and the grand (and foggy) illusion of "I'd like to go back to school and eventually get my Phd in "Something or Other" and then go on to become an expert in my field and maybe write two or three books on the subject. Two issues hold me back from the extreme vision: time and drive. Well, three issues: time, drive and money!-- but somewhere between those two thoughts, there is a realistic plan that will work for me, a fifty-year-old slow bloomer. There are choices. I do know that. I just need to work on fleshing them out. 
One of the things I hope to gain from working through the journaling exercises is a clearer picture of what I want/need to do.
If I look back and regret anything, it is not going back to school when I left the Navy. At the time, I was working 60 hour weeks on the railroad (Funny how, after all that overtime, we never seemed to be any better off. You made it to spend it). It isn't the degree I envy (Nowadays that doesn't seem to get most more than enough to simply survive). The idea of learning, though, increasing one's knowledge in any manner, is admirable and a part of who we were made to be, in my opinion. May God open doors for you to accomplish your heart's desires, Annie.......
ReplyDeleteGood luck Annie. I hope you will be able to work this out. The writing seminar sounds very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI have so little information, and I don't know you but let me just say that something inside me goes "Ahhhh, yes." When you talk about going back to school. Maybe this is YOUR time. I know you'll know what to do when you need to. It's sometimes hard to trust our own wants/needs or to even know which is which.
ReplyDeletethat sign should be put on Planet Earth. ha
I think it is your time you little slow bloomer you! I love how you right and your creative photography skills. I am behind you 100%.
ReplyDeleteI just assumed the wildlife sign applied to the 2 legged variety and not to the 4 legged critters.
ReplyDeleteI think the journaling seminar sounds great and glad you are doing something to nuture yourself.
I think we tend to put ourselves last most of the time....yes, it's always good to do something for yourself. Now, about this dreaming thing....I think dreaming big is a good thing.....nothing would ever get done if people didn't dream big. There's a difference in thinking "could not" and "did not". I say go for it!
Papyrus here, one of the other participants in the journaling workshop. I enjoyed reading your comments. I know what you mean about the difficulty in transforming dreams into action. I have similar difficulties. I hope the workshop will help you develop this whole area of your life. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHate to be the naysayer here, but I have been through a PhD program. More education? Great! Starting a PhD program just because you are restless? I would have to advise against. A dozen years ago, I had to have back surgery for a ruptured disk. Know how I got it? Probably from being hunched over a computer keyboard for hundreds of hours late at night writing my dissertation. And there are comprehensive exams to prepare for. Think long and hard, Annie. My suggestion is to set an attainable and immediate educational goal. If you see that there is a book you could write without having the degree, go for it.
ReplyDeleteNow, those of you who want to shoot me for being negative, go ahead--as long as YOU have completed a doctoral program.
Thanks all for your encouragement. I don't know exactly how this will all work out, but I do hope one day to get myself back in school, at the very least, to finish what I started at the local community college.
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