When life gives you lemons...

These beautiful ladies are my classmates and teacher in the Medical Assistant Course at Bryant and Stratton College here in Milwaukee. I'm not in the picture since i'm the one with the camera!

I had always planned on going back to school when i turned 50 (and no i'm not 50 yet, but thanks for asking!) but sometimes life doesn't work out quite like you planned and you find yourself making new plans earlier then you thought you would.

In my case, my life took an unexpected turn when i got laid off from what i thought was going to be my dream radio job here in Milwaukee. I never saw it coming-does anyone(?)-and then my life became a "what the heck am i'm gonna do with the rest of my life", which sucks since i just spent the last 24 years of my life behind a microphone which means i essentially have no marketable skills whatsoever!

Then i heard about a cool program Milwaukee County offers those of us who are unlucky enough to be on the "not so wanted" side of employment. Your unemployment benefits qualify you for retraining and tuition. You go to the Job Hire Center just off the highway on National Avenue, sit through a couple of orientation classes taught by people who have been through what you're going through, and then you get assigned a caseworker (which in my case was the awesome and colorful Alvin-i love you Alvin!) and then they decide whether you qualify for retraining and tuition, or not. In my case, 24 years of radio made me a shoo-in!...i'm not sure if i should be depressed about that or not.


My inspiration in going back to school was my late grandmother Reba Davison, who went back to school in her 50's to be a nurse. I felt her presence all eight months that i attended school and my only regret was that she wasn't alive to know how much i appreciated her example.

If you have ever thought about going back to school, but thought, "there's no way i can do it, i'm too dumb or it's too late or i'll never be able to remember anything" IT'S NOT TRUE!
Here's a little known secret about college, teachers love adults who come back to school, because they know we're really here to learn and most of us don't come in to class with hangovers (at least most of the time) because we were out partying with our friends! Sure, it took me a little longer to remember things-what with my brain hard drive already full from years of worthless Madonna information, and yes, in order to relearn math i had to wipe out years of Madonna album and boyfriend information...but it was worth it.
You know why?
I spent the last eight months, not in front of the tube, but at places like Barnes and Nobles or the cafe at Borders doing homework with my kids, although much to my embarrassment, i had to ask my kids for help with my math! The coolest thing though had to be getting up early with my kids on the mornings after a severe storm to see if school was canceled!
You know what?
If i hadn't gotten laid off, i might have never gotten this opportunity to try something new, learn something new, meet wonderful classmates, and spend precious bonding time with my children over homework and vanilla steamers (you don't think my kids were gonna hang out with me unless i bought them something do you?!)
When life gives you lemons, make lemonaide!
(Then add half a quart of vodka to it)