Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Back to Hitting the Books


I met my three little cousins over the weekend and all three were telling me about the fact that they would be starting school this week. They were very excited although the realization that they couldn't sleep in late and play all day seemed to hit them when they sat down to talk about it and they became the very definition of melancholy at that time. I then remembered my school days. During my early grade school days I would take full advantage of summer vacation. I didn't do anything other than having fun fun fun (until daddy took the T-Bird away). But by the end of the summer you got to be a bit bored. You could play outside only so much, watch movies and eat only so much before you started to long for the days when you could see all your old friends again. Like it or not, we all wanted a bit of structure in our lives.

As time went on, I continued to look forward to summer vacation but by the end I was happy to go back to school. During my later years in high school I was working nearly every summer. It was great to have such a large paycheck and get experience that helped me later on, but I came to regret (on occasion) the fact that many of my summers were gone. The nice thing with work was I rarely had to worry about homework and the lessons were often hard, but helpful in life. With school you could almost always count on having homework, projects and so many other things. It became a balancing act back then and now, with kids having so many activities both in and out of school, striking that balance is becoming increasingly difficult.

By the time I got to college, that routine had pretty much settled down and I could almost look forward to the shifting in the seasons and the weight being added back to my bags as new books replaced the old ones and I began hiking all over the University of Maryland. By the time I was done, I was happy to have school and college behind me for a while. After graduation I slowly settled into the mindset that I would be working full time and that I wouldn't be stopping in between to return to school. That realization took some time to sink in, but once it did, I was quite the happy camper. I would watch with some amusement as kids and teens would begin to drag themselves along the sidewalk going to school. Traffic increased on the commute as school buses struggled to make room for themselves on already crowded streets.

Now, having taken five years off from school, I have returned to the school front. Currently enrolled and working towards earning my masters I am trying to find that balance again. I had been used to a setup whereby I would go to class during the normal school year. However, the masters program I am enrolled in keeps me on a steady track and since beginning back in the spring of 2006, I have been going almost non-stop. Two more years are ahead of me and although I am enjoying it, I find it nice that I can relate to my three cousins again. I have homework, I have projects and I have various assignments due. I don't have to take an apple to the teacher anymore but boy oh boy do I get homework!

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