A Little on College

 When I was in 8th grade I took a course with my favorite middle 

school teacher, Mr. Capps. It was a course basically on life skills, heavily geared towards getting a college education. It should be noted I also took his aerobics course that year. yeah, 8th grade was something at the end of the 80's in that small and ethically diverse  town. Back to that course, it was the first time I realized I could attend college and have a career.

While I did not attend college immediately after high school it stayed on my mind. My initial plan was to work towards my degree while in the Marines, but that was a very short lived career path. Over the years while I was married I tried my hand at community college, my focus always being sociology of some sort. Oh, I still have a strong love for sociology.

During my divorce, my now ex-husband paid for an art course for me. It was a printmaking, and it has forever changed my life. I did a year at a community college in Eugene, Oregon and then I was off to Detroit at a four year school. yes, I was a bit intimidated, but ready to go and on task....and less than a month in I was out. My life as swept out from under me and I spent three weeks in the ICU. To say it is hard to finish a semester from a hospital bed is not a lie. For me, I was barely awake for the first two weeks, I am told I was ordering a lot of colored coded office supplies, and calling people but they at times could not understand me, it was a struggle to speak. a lot of pauses between my words to catch my breath. My kids were taking it hard. I had at least one meeting with the dean of students from the bed with oxygen on.....

The end of that first semester I was only apple to complete one course, with a lower grade because of my low attendance. The next semester I tried again, and I ended up with a serious breast infection. My body was failing. me, and I ended up in bded with a swollen and leaking breast. after 14 months of fighting to a doctor finally helped me, and I had the area removed and a biopsy. I am on the mend now and going back Yo classes on academic probation. This is my last chance with both the VA and school. To say I am nervous and second guessing my whole life.