Welcome to the Recycled Students' Roost 'n' Rest, a place where the mature student can take a break from the books, the job, the family, and hang out with other mature students. Think of it as a campus pub for students of Baby Boomer age and beyond.
We "recycled" students return to school for many reasons: to take advantage of an educational opportunity we didn't have in the past, to advance in a career; to start a new career; to obtain a GED or a degree; to learn new skills; or just for the sake of learning in itself. But we mature students often have to meet challenges usually not encountered by our younger counterparts: family responsibilities, lack of family support, work, rusty study skills, less time, and financial limitations, not to mention being older than most of your instructors or having classmates who are younger than your kids (or maybe even grandkids). Some of us are putting our kids and ourselves through school. Going to school in later life requires stamina, self-discipline, resourcefulness, and dedication. But we retreads have many resources to meet these challenges: motivation, maturity, life experiences, and maybe more self-confidence than we had when we were younger. We've been knocked around more than a few times -- and we've learned how to knock back.
Never let anyone tell you you're "too old" to go back to school. Like the commercial says, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. (Of course, a waist is a terrible thing to mind, but that's another story). A few years ago there was a report on the TV news about a freshman enrolling in Dowling College in Long Island to study computer science. A local corporation gave her a scholarship. She was 93 years old. Use it or lose it.
Just a few words about myself: My name is Diana Bitritto, and I'm in the last term of the 2 yr evening LPN program at Ocean County Vocational Technical School in Toms River, New Jersey, home of the 1998 Little League World Champions and not much else (I'll be graduating in Jan. 1999). I'm 50 (yipe!), have a husband, 2 adult (at least legally) children who get along like President Clinton and Kenneth Starr, a dog, and work full time days for a bank (YAWN!). I intend to go on for my RN. Nursing school attracts many older students. I hope you'll get a chance to visit my other Web site, The Student Nurses' Lounge (aka The Hard Knock Cafe). My passions include nursing, bicycling, and classical music, not necessarily in that order. And my classic, all-American, dysfunctional family, when we're not fighting and yelling and screaming at each other and generally driving each other crazy. My e-mail address is JerZFox@aol.com (I call myself JerZFox because it's a helluva lot easier to type than JerZFatTiredOldDog.).
This is a new site, so please bear with me. I'm a computer semi-literate cyberklutz who thinks a "Web broswer" is a spider out to do some window shopping,and "ICQ" is a frozen billiards stick, and a "Java applet" is an apple Danish with coffee (Did I mention that I'm fond of awful puns?) And between working full time, going to school part time, family responsibilities, and another Web page, this page might take some time to find itself. In the future I hope to have information such as study skills, scholarships for mature students, and a list of helpful links. In the meantime, I hope you'll sign the guestbook or e-mail me with your experiences.
Above all, this is your page,and I welcome -- indeed beg -- for your contributions about anything and everything (sorry, no raunchy stuff!)
As I mentioned before, never let anyone -- anyone -- tell you you're "too old" to go back to school or that you're "neglecting your family" (and is that a familiar refrain!). You spent all these years working and doing for them. Now it's time for you -- and both you and your family will benefit from it in the long run. Sometimes it's worse to regret the things you didn't do than the things you did do. And you'll never regret going back to school -- at any age!
