Goal 2 - Back to School

Today is the first day of class for me. I have 2 classes this semester, one that I’m looking forward to and another that I’m really excited about. The first is “American Civilization”, I enjoy learning about history so It should be interesting. The second class is “Culture and the Human Experience”. Like I’ve said before, I’m fascinated by learning about people and the way they live so this cultural anthropology class fits right into my plan.

I’ve told you about the Interdisciplinary Studies program I’m creating. Well….that’s a few semesters away. About 7 years ago I became extremely frustrated with MATH 1050. I took the same class in High School! Something about taking a 2 year break from school completely erased anything I knew about college algebra. It took me two tries to pass with a D-! After that experience I decided I had had enough with math and checked out of the AS in Architectural Studies program and into the AAS in Architectural CAD and Computer Graphics. There’s a reason it’s called Associates of APPLIED Science. No generals and I loved it. I learned a ton about architectural design, drafting and graphic design. No more math or humanities courses! I went through that program and started designing homes.

I worked for an architect designing “custom” homes. Most of them were high end spec homes or homes that we would design and build up to the point when a buyer came along and made minor design changes before the home was finished. We also had the clients who wanted to start from scratch. I loved the opportunity to meet with people and bring their ideas and needs together in the form of a truly custom design. . I learned a lot from the architect, good and bad. He had an eye for detail and scale. I he taught me to design in the 4th dimension, time. How each space would actually be used. The problem was it was HIS 4th dimension. He tended to consider how HE would use the space and how he would want things to come together. It was about a year into my time there that I started to seriously question what we were doing. We were designing for ourselves. I brought this up in a few meetings and it didn’t go over well. A funny thing started to happen. I was given less and less new work and spent about a year making small changes and tweaks to stock plans and doing parking lot layouts. For that and other reasons I decided it was time for me to move on.

I got sidetracked. But this experience was very important to my education. It began defining what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and planted a seed of dissatisfaction for the education I had received so far.
Which brings me to where I am today. Pushing 30 years old and going to school with kids a decade younger than I am. In a way I guess it’s sad for me but I don’t really see it that way. I’m ready for it this time. My drive and motivation are completely different and I know what I want to achieve with this education.

So yes, the classes I'm taking this semester are 1000 level classes to fill Gen. Ed. requirements. And yes, at 6-9 credits each semester this is going to take a while (I'll probably be 34 when I finish). But as far as education, I've never stopped learning and don't plan to once I get that piece of paper that means so much to so many people.