My life story would only be interesting if you dramatized it highly and cast some actors who are much better looking than me. But there are a few basic facts that I can acquaint you with without losing basic anonymity. I was born in Texas in 1979. I lived in the same house until I was nearly fifteen, and then we moved away (July of 1995, for those who are interested).
I went to vo-tech during my last two years of high school and went straight to work (strictly in the pink-collar ghetto) upon graduation. I got married when I was almost twenty-two. When I was almost twenty-seven, I left my husband. This was a difficult time, mostly because I hated my job but lacked the ability or the motivation to really do anything about it. I dated for awhile, and then in 2007 I met an absolutely wonderful man. He's studying philosophy, and being in his mid-thirties, he understood getting a bit of a late start. He encouraged me to drop the damnable job and go back to school to find something that would really make me happy.
So I became a freshman just shy of my thirtieth birthday. It took me less than a semester to realize that philosophy was where I wanted to be. In the meanwhile, the boyfriend and I had built a life together. He was kind enough to stretch his graduate student salary far enough to support us so that I didn't have to try to hold a job while working. He's also helped me to acquire three new cats (to go along with the one he found me with) to round out our little family. Despite our slightly impoverished situation, our apartment overflows with books and DVDs (mostly purchased with gift money or owned before poverty set in). We share a love of role-playing games, video games, and graphic novels that help us to fill what spare time we have. We also have some truly grand friends both inside and outside the department.
This blog is here so that I can ramble on about my experience in being a thirty-something student. I know I'm far from the only non-traditional student out there (that's what they call us oldsters). But most non-traditional students are juggling families and possibly also full-time jobs. I have the luxury of having regressed into my early twenties while retaining the perspective of someone who's lived the real live out there and is still here to tell the tale. I think it's interesting. I hope you do, too.
