Geez! Accept I'm on the 11 year plan!
One of the things that I regret in my life is not getting done with school in 4 years. I left for school at 18 and I am somehow STILL going to school all these years later.
I got distracted! At first it was going great, I was going to school full time, working part time... BARELY paying my bills and had nothing left over for fun. I remember thinking, "should I buy socks? or buy milk, instead of eating my cereal dry?" I HATED HATED HATED having that decision to make. So, working more (and making more money) seemed like what I really wanted to do. Eventually I was going to school part time and working full time...
They PROMOTED me! I was a
MANAGER. So, OBVIOUSLY I had cut out school a little more. Eventually, cutting it out altoghether. "I'm just taking a semester off."
Now here I am... 10 years, and graduation is FINALLY on the horizon for me (ahem...3 schools later). I have a fairly decent job that, for the most part, supports my husband and me (here in the Bay Area even!). But last night, as I was walking back to my car after a night class, I started to feel how much I missed by not experiencing college.
Class was held in the library and I realised that throughout my ENTIRE college career, I had NEVER studied in the library. In fact, I think I have only checked out 3 books from a college library... EVER.I never had time to study in the library. I bought all my books online so I would never have to take time out of my life to go to the library.
I quickly walked outside the library into the dark campus. There were plenty of people around, so I didn't feel timid walking around campus by myself as there were plenty of lights around anyway. As I walked the distance from the library to the parking garage, I saw a group of about 15 people standing near the lake/pond, probably some sort of club or a class. I realised that I had never had time for clubs or friends in college. I never "hung out" with people, because I was always in a mad dash to get to work right after my classes were over.
As I walked, I noticed that I had never even been on that side of campus because none of the buildings looked familiar to me. Since I came to this school, I have only taken classes for my major, so they were all in the same building. The only buidlings I had been in on campus were the History building, the library, the administration building and the bookstore, all of which are right next to eachother.
Then I walked past what must have been a very old chapel. Light was coming through stained glass windows, and I could see people moving and hear music playing through windows along the chapel. I never had time for doing things on campus after classes. I have always gone immediately home to study.
A lot of people at my school have studied abroad. In fact, most of the people majoring in history have studied abroad. I ALWAYS dreamed of doing a semester in Britain or Italy, but I always figured it wasn't an option for me because I couldn't take time off work and NOT have a job. I couldn't save up the money to survive a semester elsewhere in the world.
I don't know why I worked so hard and let school fall along the wayside. I feel more like it happend to me, rather than it being a decision. But at least within the next year it will all be behind me and I will FINALLY have that
EXPENSIVE piece of paper.
I don't have kids, but I still love the books I read as a child. I think it would be fun to go to this exhibit at The National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature. 
