What a great accomplishment! Good for you. Good luck in your new endeavor and continue making those in your life proud and setting an amazing example.
Dammit, you’re making me think here… 
Lessee… I returned spring term 2011. I started by taking a single writing class, because I felt writing was my area of strength and by taking writing I could learn a bit about the logistics of the school (where the classrooms were, where the instructors offices were, the different department schedules, contact people, etc) while starting to whittle away at my credit requirements. That first term I took just the writing class. I skipped that summer and returned that fall part time, taking math and Spanish. Between then and now I’ve been full-time three terms out of (when I’m done) 11.
I took summer classes only once, this past summer. And it was a single class, trig, condensed into 5 weeks. So it was far from full-time.
I took out one single subsidized loan so far. Everything else was paid for through grants or out of pocket. Since my PSU scholarship will only cover tuition, books, and any school fees my living expenses will be on me.
I’ve applied for university housing, but PSU has approx. 850 units for something like 27,000 students. So… my chances of getting a studio are small. If that falls through, then I don’t know what I’m going to do. Keep searching, obviously. Portland has a pretty good public transportation system, and as long as I’m within short walking distance of a TriMet line of some sort, I should be OK. Naturally, I would prefer to live on campus, but we’ll see what happens.
I think going back to school was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It has been a struggle, to be sure, and if it wasn’t for my wife working full time we wouldn’t have been able to do this without taking out more loans. However, I currently work part-time as a writing and math tutor for the college, something that obviously I wouldn’t be able to do without having returned to school. I don’t know what made PSU accept me, a quick Google says it has about a 66% acceptance rate. However, I’m so glad they did.
I don’t think college is ever a mistake. Obviously there are situations for some people that going to college or returning isn’t the best option, but really I think those situations are few and far between.
Look into your options for financial aid. Even if you go back to school taking just a class at a time, it’s so worth it. I don’t know where you live, but most communities have either a community college, junior college or city college where classes for credit are readily available. It took me a year to declare a major, and it was in mathematics – something that I’ll be using for my CS degree. However, I didn’t choose CS until this year. I originally went back to school thinking I would major in business. When I saw everyone declaring business as their major, I decided that may not be the best course for me. Undecided, I just kept whittling away at the core requirements. I finally realized that I was smoking my way through my math classes, so I just kept going with math.
If it’s for the right reasons, do it.
Thanks for this. I’m not a huge fan of live music, but I am a fan of Shakespeare and other plays. I’m so looking forward to having the opportunity to get my thespian feet wet. My wife will be graduating with an early childhood education degree, and her hope is to open a home-based daycare and preschool somewhere. I’m not sure what the demand for that is in the city, but if Craigslist is any indication there is some.
There are a lot of daycare places, just in this neighborhood. The big dog in Portland is Creative Minds, with six locations, including one in our neighborhood. They have a really good program, from what I’ve seen through the windows when walking by. But there are at least three or four other smaller ones around here also. There are some very active theater groups, although I’m not all that hot on theater.