60 is the New 22

Who knew?

It only took me 41 years.

I started college in 1980 after a gap year. I had to pay my own way. My father swore he’d happily pay for college — but only if I became a dentist. Yes, the career choice he made for me was that specific and the straw man he built was that flimsy. I know Dad; if I’d taken him up on his offer and become a biology major on a path to dental school, he’d have found a reason not to pay.

Dad said it was important to go into the medical profession because people will always need doctors and dentists. Lifetime job security, no matter what the economy does or doesn’t do. Respectability. Unsaid: if I were a dentist, I’d be rich. I’d have the means to take good care of him in his old age. Even though he himself had plenty of money.

Dad was always thinking ahead.

Dead end major

Back in 1980, there was still such a thing as a Home Economics major, and I jumped at it. Of course! I love food and I can sew. The flip side was dark; career paths for a Home Ec major? Two. (1) Home economics teacher. In retrospect, that major would be the opposite of job security because who even teaches Home Ec these days? (2) Dietitian. I’m pretty sure that is still a profession, even if Home Economics is not. As Dad would say, people will always have to eat. But decades of eating disorders have convinced me it would have been a bad idea for me to have a food-centered career.

I dropped out after one semester as I just couldn’t see myself at the end of the Home Economics path, no matter how hard I squinted. I figured I’d take some time off to “find myself.” Sure enough, for two decades, I looked for myself. In all the wrong places.

I did eventually stumble on myself. It was the late 1990s, and I was working in the insurance industry, which I found I liked. That sparked an interest in business and finance, so I went back to school — at an excellent community college — at 38 and got my AA in Business Administration. I did this while working, no debt required or owed.

Dad died in 2001, just a few weeks before I turned forty, still saying in his twilight months of life that he would have paid for my college, if I’d only become a dentist. Despite all that, he was proud of me. At that point, I was self-sufficient. I was making a good living as a manager in a dot com startup. I was in college. I was going places.

And, yes, I do have Daddy issues, but that’s a topic for another day.

Doors wide shut

Ten years after the dot com boom busted and the job market became a desert, particularly for people without college degrees, and not long after I got the Associate’s degree, I got a job in local government. I thought the AA would open doors, but it really only opened one — to my current job as an executive assistant, where I’ve now been for more than eight years. The other doors, I soon found out when I felt ready to move on up, were locked tight to everyone but people with four-year degrees.

This, despite demonstrable accomplishments well outside of my job description and several certificate programs that should have mattered, including a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. All promotional jobs were firmly out of reach unless I got my Bachelor’s degree. It didn’t matter who went to bat for me or their position on the food chain. Even a City Manager was helpless in the face of unbending union rules. It took nine years in the public sector for that conclusion to make its way through my blockhead.

It seems I really did need that degree after all. Critical thinking skills, y’all.

Two years ago, I went back to a (state) university to get my B.S. The state school has an excellent curriculum and faculty and is affordable. I did an accelerated degree-completion program for working adults and finished my last class before I turned 60. Last week, I found out my application to graduate was approved effective December 17, 2021.

I finally have my degree, 41 years after I started.

Now that I’ve got the higher learning bug, I can’t slow down. Evenings and weekends feel wasted when I don’t have something to study. So, I’m researching MBA and Masters of Public Administration programs for working professionals, because why stop now? Why not go all the way? I’ll be a Doctor yet.

College isn’t for everyone, and many people get along perfectly well without it. Still, I found it gave me the thinking chops and the skills needed to navigate this crazy world. Without practicing critical thinking, it’s easier to land in the vortex of illogic, anti-science, conspiracy theories, grift, and hate waiting to suck in those vulnerable to that message.

I didn’t have to wait this long, but I’m proof that it’s never too late!