Back to School for GrownUps

There are so many possible reasons to consider going back to school as a mature/returning student.

In some cases, it comes down to money/opportunities… if you are not happy with where you are and what you are being paid, why not look at other options?

In others, it is about doing what you love, or have always wanted to do.

In mine - at least once - it was a response to burn out. Best decision I ever made.

I had been working in the mental health system. I had been working mostly with kids and I loved it. It was my passion, and I was totally committed to it - to making a difference in the lives of the children I worked with.

But then I had a serious car accident, and I was physically not able to work directly with emotionally disturbed and acting out kids.

After about 4 years off, during which I mostly played video games and went to physiotherapy programs, I was able to work again… but not with my messed up kids. I worked with adults.

Spent some time as a Rights Advisor - that was a job that I could have done for years & years. But then Mike Harris won the election in Ontario, and one of the first things he did was axe the Ontario Advocacy Commission. You still had rights if you were mentally ill in Ontario - but you no longer had the right to know about them, or be supported to exercise them. Details, details.

Anyway - I did some other social service type jobs …but the climate here was very much at odds with my own personal beliefs and values, and it did not take long for me to crash and burn out….waaaaaaaaaaay out.

I just could not do it any more. In one week there were three incidents that contributed to my decision to go back to school:

1. A woman (that I didn’t know) who was mentally ill - but not seriously mentally ill enough to be eligible for help in Mike Harris’ Ontario - killed a toddler that was being pulled for a ride in a wagon by a 14 yo babysitter. I wonder if the babysitter ever got seriously mentally ill enough as a result to qualify for help.. probably not.
2. I met with one of my clients and she complained about her doctor wanting to increase her dosage of antidepressants. Even with the proposed increase, my dosage was higher. That struck me as wrong - that I was being paid to support people that needed less medication than I did.
3. I received a call telling me that a client had committed suicide and I was to go and mediate a support group that that client’s family had been attending for years. I did not know a single person in the group - but I was expected to go be supportive.

   Before the meeting, I sat outside the meeting place - on the edge of a concrete planter, I remember - and wrote reams of paper - tears streaming down my face - about how I could not do it - had nothing left to give.

So - even though I was a single parent, and had 2 kids depending on me - that week, I filled out applications for college.

I decided that I would go work with computers.

I knew next to nothing about computers.

But I liked writing on them. I was newly involved in the Internet, and enjoying that.

And I knew that computer programmers were anti-social types who could work in a cubicle and not have to interact with people.

And besides, computers do not call you up in the middle of the night and threaten to commit suicide unless you come up with the right thing to say or do.

So - I went back to school.

Have you gone back to school? I would love to hear your story. What caused you to take that step?

Are you thinking about going back? Love to hear about that too… why you’re considering it…what you’d like to take… ?

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