ATtending school as an adult

Kim posted a comment on my last posting that made me think, (Hooray for Kim!) something I have been avoiding most of the summer. She wondered about going to school as an adult and if she would like it more than when she was a teenager. My reply? Well, you could go to my previous post and look at the comments, but it boils down to ''no''. Here's why:

Picture yourself in a cramped room filled with desks meant for midgets (excuse me, little people or height challenged) and anorexics. Then fill 95% of these torture devices with 19-21 year olds. The majority of these will be typing into lap-tops, listening to MP3's on those little IPod things, or yawning in vain attempts to remain alert. These same students are also very cliquish, still holding on to the high school hierarchical mores that allowed them to survive those hellish years. These students talk only to those in their sororities/fraternities or people they knew in high school or met at the dorm. They do not become involved in class discussions unless forced and often appear to have brown-bottle flu every Monday, frequently all through the week. The females of this group tend to wear pants so low on their hips that their smiley-faced thong straps show (if they wear undies of any sort) or skirts so short you can smell whether they have a yeast infection or not and come to classes looking like they're heading to the bar any second. The males sport an array of clothing: from gangsta wannabe wear to the typical jock stuff, with a select few wearing band shirts and frat shirts or the ever-popular "Bar Crawl" shirt that has every bar in Iowa City listed on it with boxes for Sharpie marks next to them. These shirts are notoriously filled with checks and stained with various liquors and body fluids. Out of the remaining 5% of the class body, half of these are students that took the class solely for the purpose of having enough credit hours to receive their financial aid rebates and will not be seen after this has been disbursed. One fourth of the remainder will be students who are the brainiacs, geeks, and literati (depending on the subject) that take subject material waaay too seriously. These are the students that have meltdowns during midterms and finals and jump off bridges...or become political leaders. The remaing fourth will be students like me: adults, usually transfer students from a community college or some other university, sometimes single, sometimes with a family, interested in the work but overly obsessed, and looking for a friendly face. We are the ones who pester those around us for missed notes, because it is so rare that anyone befriends us and teachers do not like to hand notes to students who miss class. We are also the ones, though, that often bring a different perspective to the materials. We have varied and great life experiences to draw on and are usually very willing to become active in class discussions. Eventually, we become the students that the others turn to for help: missed notes, syllabus changes, and study partners. We are terribly under-appreciated by the university I attend, horribly abused by other students, and it's all worth it. No matter how much I bitch or whine or have tantrums, I wouldn't change a thing. Well, okay, a great many things. But, I have learned much more by attending college at this age than I believe I would have if I had gone fresh out of high school. I mean, come on...my whole goal as a junior in HS was to attend the college I'm at now, look at the Frat boys, and try to become a sex ed teacher...and not the kind of sex ed teacher most high schools have if you get my drift. Wendy will understand.

At any rate, is it hard? Oh god, words are not enough to describe it. Is it a hassle? Oh yeah. Do the cons outweigh the pros? Often. But I'm lucky. I have a terrific support system: my Mom, Grasshopper, Wendy, my kids, my recycled husband, and several of my instructors are so impressed with me that one of them nominated me to the Who's Who of American Women for my achievements. There are adult students (and the traditional ones too) who don't have the support I do. Those are the ones I feel sorry for. But for the moment, would everyone please feel pity for me? Please? I'd heard rumors that my senior status would be a major ass-ache, but I had no clue it would be like this.