First day "back" at school
I graduated from college with a B.S. in psychology in 1976. At the time, I was in a Calvinistic denomination, and was struggling with that idea of "the call." That, in itself, is a theme for a bunch of blogs, but not today. Over the past 33 years, I have worked at various retailers and owned two businesses, both of which forced me into bankruptcy. Over the past decade, I've had more and more problems with pain in my legs. Add all that together with the economy, and getting a job has been difficult over the past year--physical problems and simultaneously under- and overqualified. To that effect, the state is putting up money to go back to college. Today was the first day. I actually never left my house, as one class was totally online. One thing that reminded me of how long I have been out of school was one sentence of the instructions for an algebra class. One of the necessities for it was a graphing calculator, but the sentence that mentions it assumed that anyone taking this class already owned one. This class is somewhat of a repeat of my 12th grade math in 1970-1. I don't know if graphing calculators existed back then; I don't think so, but I have better things to do than look that up.
I remember that I had problems with the subject in 12th grade, but the instructor said we had a poor textbook, but the school owned it, so it had to be used for five years. Now that I am in my fifties, I can look back and conclude that another part of the problem was the teacher's need to still gain some maturity, but I didn't have a clue then, and it wouldn't have changed anything if I did know it.
I am amazed how much educational books have changed. In this math text, each section has over 100 problems to practice on. Then I needed to do homework online. With each question answered, it told me if I was right or wrong, pointed me to the rule I needed to understand, and then gave a second and third chance. If I still didn't get it right, I could choose an equivalent question. When I got it right, it counted as a correct answer. Of course, math is one of those subjects that has conclusive right and wrong answers (remember, I was a psych major).
I got another text on operating system use (Internet Explorer 7.0). The book had four authors. Inside the front cover was four pages of names of contributing professors and students! I'd never seen such a long list of credits for a book. Gee, things have changed. Gee, I now feel silly for pounding away at bottom line jobs these past three decades, but the past is past. I literally meant pounding away. Last week, I found out the pain in my legs is actually a pinched nerve in my spine. Still hurts above my right ankle, like a really bad bruise, like I got in football many years ago.
From a Christian level, I don't believe how I worked was in any way sin, but it was a less than optimal stewardship of God's natural giftings in my life. All I can do is desire to do my best each day, to God's glory. I just need to do my best sitting in a chair.
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Author: tevye
Location: Virginia Beach Virginia USA
Gender: Male
Age: 56
Blog Entries: 26 (archive)
Blog Comments: 21
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