There are many reasons why going back to school as an adult could be the best decision you’ll ever make. Maybe you’re tired of not earning enough money at your current job or feel like your current position is a dead end job.
For myself, I felt like a robot in the the corporate world with no chance for advancement. So, I chose to return to school to learn a new trade. It was challenging to juggle my adult responsibilities with school work (kids and all). Also, as an adult you must work in order to pay monthly bills and sometimes also to pay for school, so money is tight. Along the way, it became easier as I figured out ways to make the new journey painless as possible. It took much thought, yet I found a few ways to make it work for me.
Write Everything Down & Be Prepared to Multi-Task
The first thing I did was to put my priorities in order, by writing everything down on a piece of paper by order of importance. The categories were work, school work, household chores and socializing. I quickly learned to multi-task. For instance, while on my lunch break at work I would catch up on my school work. Always bring your lunch to work so that you are not wasting precious time leaving the building (and spending too much money on fast food). I brown bagged it every day during the semester, making sure that I was eating energetic foods.
Accept Help from Others
The next lesson I learned was how to accept help from others. For instance, family, friends, class mates and instructors. For example, my girlfriend helped me with my studies from beginning to end, which was a major help. We did this as we prepared and ate dinner. I then made friends with some of my classmates. We would agree to meet on some weekends to assist one another with any problematic work from school. I found my instructors were very willing to provide some time after class to answer any questions that I had.
Minimize Minor Activities
While going to school as an adult, I had to limit the amount of time spent on relatively minor issues, like household chores. I made every effort to clean up after myself at home and do chores every Sunday for one hour only but I realized that everything didn’t have to be “spic and span” for the time being. As for socializing, I choose to limit my outings with friends and not talk endlessly on the phone. I learned to keep my eye on the prize, graduating. Every day that I went to work was a reminder of why I was working so hard going back to school as an adult. I had my highs and lows, yet I never gave up. I managed to graduate and am now looking forward to my bright future. Sometimes you have to make temporary sacrifices to have long-term comfort and success.
Posted by Eve