A New Old adventure..

Tomorrow marks a big day for me. I start school again. This will be the fifth time I've tried to go to college.

The first time I went for a year to a community college, but I was young and decided I would rather move to Olympia and live with a boyfriend I met only a month before. A year later I had a beautiful daughter and tried to go back to school after her dad and I split up. I went for a quarter but realized that between working and school, I only ever saw my daughter when she was sleeping. So I left school. I would like to say I focused on my daughter but at the time I was also struggling with my alcoholism and spent much time in the bars near where I lived while my parents watched my daughter. A few years later I tried again, this time at a bigger school. I went for a year and during that time, left an abusive environment and then went off the deep-end in my alcoholism. I decided my drinking and sleeping all the time were more important so I quit school. A month or two later I had found my way on to the path of sobriety. I tried to go back to school but not much sooner did I loose my job and had to leave school to find a new job. I gave up after that.

Eight years later, I'm daring to go ahead again. I've been sober all this time and now have more motivation. I've since remarried and have a 3 year old son with Autism, and want the world for him. I'm not in an immediate position to afford a great deal for him, but I can go to school to learn to teach him. My husband is on board and my family is thrilled and willing to take my son for a couple of hours here and there to help me get some study time in while my husband is working.

I'm a little scared because I've let myself down so many times before, but I'm excited too because I know I'm not the same person I was then and that I can do this!