When I first went to college I had just turned thirty, I had just got married and my wife and I had one baby on the way. Was I mad to do all of this at once? Well yes, probably but it was a conscious and planned decision from the start and I have had no regrets since.
When I met my wife I was existing in the world and providing for my own subsistence but selling engineering supplies to manufacturing companies. It was not a very rewarding job. The pay was poor, the hours were long and there was little or no opportunity for improvement. But it did provide a pay cheque and that was enough for me. Then I met my wife and my world changed. Before that time I only needed to consider myself and my own needs, now I was to have a family and I knew that I could not raise a family to the standard that I wanted on my salary. So we hatched a plan. We would get married and I would stop work and go to college to increase my potential earning power. The only catch was that we had no savings. Luckily my wife became pregnant and in Australia the government will help if you are a mature age student going to college for the first time (the government wants a "smart" country).
When I first started I did not opt for a full study load even though I knew that I would have to pick up the slack sometime in the future. I set myself a three quarter load and the goal of achieving at least a 5.0 GPA during my first semester. I did this because when I was a school I was a very poor student and I was not sure how well I would cope with studying, or even if I would be capable of studying. I set a three quarter load to give myself the best chance while still fulfilling the criteria for government assistance and a 5.0 GPA because considering what it was costing me to go to college when I considered lost income and the college fees I needed to finish near the top of every course to give myself the best chance of increasing my earning after college.
I still had to work to top up the government support so I chose a part time job that provided regular hours with the opportunity to increase those hours during the holidays. It was a job that required very little mental commitment because after all the idea was not to make a career out of it but to earn money. When my first child was born I was so happy that I had started college earlier that year because it gave me the flexibility of lifestyle I wanted to spend time with my wife and son. I could study from home and just go to campus to attend lectures and use the library and then return home. Work was done on the weekends with me refusing to do any work during the week. I was easily the best employee doing the work and I was reliable so when I needed to have time off for extra study the boss was usually agreeable.
When my daughter was born the next year we were already in a routine and that was fortunate because my wife has a bit of a hard time of it following the birth. I cut back work slightly and focused on study and family and we all got through it in the end.
I completed two more years of study and ended up with an honors degree in anthropology and archaeology which in turn got me a nice government job earning considerably more than I could have as a engineering sales rep.
The things that I always kept in my mind throughout the whole experience were: my motivation, that is my family and their future; the cost, the whole exercise probably cost around $120,000 if you include lost income and student fees; That the time I was spending at college was specifically for college and work was to put food on the table and nothing more, don't get caught up in a part time job, it's not permanent so don't invest too much time in it; and, I always took plenty of time to spend with my family, after all that was who it was all for so why miss out.
The four years I spent studying were probably the best in life and the sacrifices that we made in terms of standard of living and lack of holidays and new cars and all of the rest have been worth every bit of it.
The most important thing to recognize your reasons for the sacrifices and keep them in the front of your mind, and know that it will all be worth it in the end.
