you look like a teacher.

{source, fool!}

my first experience with grad school took place in 2005.  i enrolled in a "fast track" graduate program to become a teacher.  by the time student teaching rolled around, i chickened out, applied to a different school & transferred.  something about taking a 16-week long class in just four weekends didn't set well with me and i suddenly felt overwhelmed & inadequate even though i was one 14-week long student teaching session & one thesis away from a masters degree and license to teach pre-k through third grade.

my second experience with grad school took place in the summer of 2006.  i transferred out of that "fast track" program and into a university program that offered me a more thorough chance at becoming a teacher {in other words, i was shelling out more money for what i already learned just to learn it all over again, but this time at a much slower pace}.  silly, i know.

then, my mother got sick. 

i was working full time.  going to grad school full time.  being a wife & mother full time.  my kids were little...malia was barely in kindergarten.  and my mother had breast cancer.   

something had to give.  

i know it may seem like a cop out to some, but i dropped out of school.  i didn't withdraw.  i dropped out.  {it was like deja vu...i dropped out back in 1997 as an undergrad my sophomore year of college.}

so here i am, roughly five years after i started the journey, and i am heading back to school to finally finish that masters degree i started so long ago.  i have some pre-requisite classes i need to take {undergraduate level stuff that my bachelors degree doesn't completely cover}.  i may also have to beg, grovel & plead with the university to take me back.  but, i met with the program advisor today and things are very, very, VERY hopeful.  i mean, can someone really deny a person of their education?  i sure as hell don't think so {and i sure as hell hope they don't deny me}.

i'm going back.

i'm going to {finally} become a teacher.