I am graduating from college today.

I am graduating from college today. I am 52 years old, so it took a while. I received a Bachelors of Arts in Organizational Management from Ashford University. I will be the first person in my family to get a college degree; my mother did not get past the 5th grade. My father never graduated high school. None of my siblings or my children have college degrees. I left school when I was 12 in the middle of the sixth grade. I did what is now called unschooling (unstructured homeschooling). I read books, traveled, studied herbs and midwifery and passed my GED when I was 17. My life was focused on my four children and busy midwifery practice, college was not a consideration. I took a couple of classes in community college in the eighties, but could not go to school and births at the same time. I was quite hindered in my professional life by the lack of formal education. I still struggle with writing.

It took me over five years to get this degree. I have some physical challenges so going to school online, on my own schedule was the only way it was possible. When I stopped practicing in 2005, I decided to change careers and become a web designer, I was a few credits shy from an Associate’s degree in Web Design, then I realize code and me were never going to get along, and my love and passion in life is midwifery and distance education. In 2007, I founded Aviva Institute, switched schools from Baker College to Ashford University, and changed my major to organizational management. Starting and running a college at the same time being a student has been really crazy. I have to say I love Ashford; it is really workable for part time. There is no way I could have been an Aviva student. Aviva’s program is so much more time intensive.

I am now working on my Master’s in Education with concentration in Technology Leadership. I took a few graduate level courses so far and it looks doable, plus it is all very relevant. The courses I took on organizational management were all so corporate.

Now I get a month off but off from classes, but now organizing a midwifery conference and doing the Oregon Country Fair so it is hardly time off. So I am back to being crazy busy. But now I am a crazy busy college graduate.