I hate myself for delaying for so long. I didn't want to go into a STEM program because I didn't believe in myself. I'd always been great in history, English and social sciences (psychology, sociology, etc). I got an AA in Social & Behavioral Studies in my first go-round at college a few years ago.
It led me nowhere. I ended up accepting a shit job, working 60 hours per week. As time went by and I applied for different jobs only to end up getting rejected every time, I decided it was time to go back to college and actually put the work in to do something else.
I'm 25; work a shitty night job; have a wife and young daughter whom I support; I just restarted to go to college part-time as of this past January to try to get into a registered nursing program.
The thing that sucks is that I can't quit this job, so that means I can't go full-time. I need to take a bunch of science classes-- Biology, Chemistry, Microbiology, and two Anatomy & Physiology classes-- before I can even apply for the Registered Nursing program. I plan to take one of each per semester plus an additional two elective classes that the RN program requires. It's safe to say it'll take me between 2-3 years to get through these classes, then take the 2 year RN program.
By then, I'll be 30-31 years old.
I face-palm myself whenever I think about it, but alas, it's my fault I delayed so long. I didn't believe I could do it until I started hearing about some of my more idiotic high school classmates now doing bigger, better things than I imagined they'd be doing.
I mean, there's a girl I know who was a complete idiot in high school. I recall I had a history class with her and she seriously thought Abraham Lincoln was the 5th president of the United States because "why else would he be on the 5 dollar bill?" I recall she thought the Cold War happened before World War II! I also recall she failed a physical science class we had together in 9th grade.
Today, she's a dental hygienist at a local dentist's office that my wife & I go to.
And she's not the only one. There are plenty of others, such as a guy I had a Biology class with in 10th grade, who failed it and had to retake it, but today he's a paramedic.
It may seem fucked up to be saying/thinking this, but I'm sure that if these former classmates could handle the science classes they had to endure to reach the position they're in now, I should be able to do it, too.
I mean, at least I hope...