Ep. 6 College at 50 am I too old?

Are you considering going back to college now? Are you too old? 

Well, if you're wondering if you're too old, you could also wonder if you are too short or too tall to do it, or you are too white, are you too black? You know what I'm going to say next. It doesn't matter. You do what you want to do. Baby boomers are booming and doing what they want and what they feel they can. Are you healthy? Is your mind alert? Do you want your mind to be more alert? Well, going to college is the best way to get your mind alert. Even if you don't go after a degree. Degrees are wonderful. I have a story for you about me and it's actually quite a good example, I must say. I share it with my students.

I teach college right now and I love it. I tell my college students, if I had $1 billion this very day, I'd still be teaching them. I love teaching. I love it. I love the journey that I've taken for the education that I have; that I am able to do what I love and there are no doors that are closed to me. The only doors that are closed to me are the ones I choose to close by moving far away or not wanting to walk so far or not wanting to do that job description. I like being an adjunct professor where I can pop in and pop out.

My Story Begins at Age 19 

I took my first college class. After about six months in the field of performing arts including dance, I got in a traumatic accident with my best friend. (That's another story about my health and all that I went through) I had to drop out, obviously, from gymnastics, dance, all of it. I was broken.

I was in a sling, I had a broken back, a broken collarbone and my friend was not there anymore. She died and I watched her die. Soon after that, I got married. I was married young at 19 and had kids right away. My dad always said, "Darly get an education." He said, "Darly, Vaughn, Lamar, Rex," gathered the kids around and said, "my dad's dying." And with my dad's dad's dying breath said, "Verl, get an education." My dad, Verl Taylor, did not stop until he got his bachelor's degree. That's just what we do in our family.

Get An Education

There I was, with this broken body. no longer able to do what I had planned. What should I change my major to be? There are many factors beyond having the broken body, such as difficult in-laws, relationships, friends . . . . I always wondered as we all do, why they do that thing. Why them? And it clicked! I thought I'm going to go into psychology. Almost like bells and whistles going off in my head one night! I woke up, thinking, "I'm doing it ." I was 19. Now you might be thinking, "well, gosh, I'm 54. I wonder what you're gonna say now?" You're going to like what I say now.

I started with classes and classes, but then I got pregnant. Then I took classes one at a time. Then I got pregnant again. I was throwing up in the bathroom and then I'd come back to class. I had the baby and then I still took one class at a time, which just edified my life. I felt uplifted, edified. I felt smarter when we all went to dinner. I had something to say with one class at a time. I got pregnant again and then kept going to school and then I got pregnant again! By now I'm embarrassed. I'm a baby factory, judge me all you want! I did want a lot of kids. They just came kind of quick. This kept going on and I ended up with five children and classes one at a time. My family is always first and always will be. Even today.

How did I do it? 

I want you to get a calculator, and think. It's 90 something credits per degree. Divide that by semesters or quarters on how many classes you can take with maybe three, four classes at a time. If you do the math, guess how many years it takes to get a degree, one class at a time? It's kind of a fun trivia thing for me to do in my college classes. I say, "Alright! Bachelor's degrees are really important. How many years do you think I took to get mine? If you guess it, I'll give you $1,000." It's really fun because I'm going to give them $1000 if they guess. They write it down and then I have them shout out what they think. I have three people who shout, and I usually get:

" two years!" "No."

"Three years!"

"No."

Then they usually guess, "Eight years!"

I say, "No, the answer is . . . ." and I turn around and I write it on the board...     27 years!!!

27 Years!!

It took me 27 years to get my bachelor's. (Which Emoji would you use for that jaw-dropping fact?) I loved it. I loved every day of my bachelor's degree. I started seeing clients earlier than my bachelor's because I had an NLP, that's Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques. I was a master practitioner and still am. Every time I saw a client I kept thinking, "I want to learn more." I've never stopped with my clients. I kept going to school. I ended up with a double major in human development at the University of Utah.

It was really fun. My family came when I graduated. Well, now what? My friend said, "We're all going to go get our masters degree."

"Well wait, aren't we done?" We did it as a group or rather I had a few friends I made along the way. And so we decided to get master's degrees. I said, "Okay, we'll do it online." Then my friends all dropped out and there I was. My daughter was in high school so it worked for me. I went full time in masters online and after that, I'm done. I didn't even do the next graduation walk. Then shortly after, a cohort said, "Well I just signed up for my doctorate."

A Doctor? 

"No, you did not say that to me." Didn't even think I was going to do it. You are not kidding. I was 53 yeah. 53 starting my Doctorate? I ended up with my doctorate at age 58. It was just so exciting to just go ahead and do that. My colleague was back east, and we would chat on the phone and email and us, we did it and we held each other up through that horrible dissertation.

Let me tell you, I wouldn't wish a dissertation process on my worst enemy. (Maybe I shouldn't be saying that to you.) But having a doctorate might be overkill. If you're thinking of going back to school at age 50 and if you're thinking of going back to school at age 60 70 50 90 80 it's what do you want to do?

That's my story! It took me a long time. I had kids all the while. I build a private practice as I was doing it. Many of my students in my college class think that they need to take a full load right now all the way. It's difficult when you have a scholarship because that is a little bit true. You have to slam it or a grant type of thing. If you can, pace yourself. I'm all over pacing yourself. My Dad always said, "Darley this life, its a marathon, not a sprint."

Step by Step 

It's a long journey. In fact, it's a triple marathon. It keeps going and when you sprint, you might lose out on some things that you could enjoy. As you consider going back to college at age 50 and am "I too old," you'll say, "What are my priorities? What do I need to do and can I slow down? Can I pace myself? Can I do that?" To enjoy family, friends, maybe you're building a home, your spouse, your relationships. What are you doing?

I know in my college classes, most of them are in their twenties I've got some in their thirties forties and a few in their fifties, every once in a while they just seem to be so manic and rushed about schooling. There are a lot that are suicidal. I find out later through papers they write and, and they deal with a lot of difficulties.

Find YOUR Path 

Pace yourself, everyone, whatever age you are. If you're young reading to this, you might go, "Oh, okay, Huh, wow. Maybe I can do it differently now." If you're in a hurry, that's great. You can do that too. Studying is easy. Pick something that you love because if you don't love it, Eh. You want to study about it. If you pick something that you're passionate about, you can't wait to go sit down and learn more. Right? It's amazing. It's so fun.

Stop Waiting Around 

Are you too short to go to school? No, no, you, you call that school right now and you enroll in one class or five. Whatever you decide, you're going to create your life, aren't you? You engineer your entire life. You might burn out. You might need to press it for a little bit and then calm down in a few years. That's up to you. But just know that I did it. It was not hard and I'm 62 right now.

Stay Sharp 

I remember being as sharp as a tac! It was almost like that show where he takes that pill and it makes him really smart and he can know everything. I felt like I was taking that pill. I felt so sharp that I could remember everything I saw and if someone said something I totally remembered it and then I could use the logic to deduct or do something. It was the weirdest thing. My brain was just working because it had been practiced and practiced and worked out. Talk about strong legs. I had a strong brain at 58! If your brain's mushy, go back to school. My girlfriend one time we were talking and I'm said, "girlfriend, honey. I think you need to, like get another job and get out of the house or go to school because you're starting to not finish your sentences."

She was such a good friend that she totally appreciated what I said. She was getting to where she couldn't remember things. She got a job, she took a class at school, and all of a sudden, "oh well there you are."

You’ve Got This!