So... I'm going back to school.
Way back in 1992, I graduated from University of Illinois with a degree in English Literature. Not the most useful degree, I suppose, but IBM was looking for liberal arts majors from U of I apparently (there were a bunch of us hired within 2-3 years) and I fell into finance. I guess I was good at my job, because they kept promoting me, but I was never really happy in the field. IBM had some pretty great benefits, including free tuition for those pursuing an MBA, so I briefly went back to school in the mid 90's with an MBA in mind.
Then I got promoted. This new job had me traveling full time and there was no way to keep attending school and I didn't really want an MBA anyway. Then I got engaged, got sick of travel, and decided to pursue the career that I had wanted since I was 10 years old -- I wanted to be a computer programmer.
I taught myself C (and html) and applied (again) to graduate school. I got in to DePaul (again) and in 1998 I quit my job, started working at a finance company that was within walking distance from my (new) house, and started taking computer science courses. While at DePaul I learned C++ and loved it. I eventually quit my "real" job, started working the morning shift as a barista and went back to school full time.
Then life happened -- marriage, death, moving, pregnancy, illness -- all the major life events and all at once. I forged ahead, but in 2002 something had to give, and that thing was school.
I started some businesses, founded a charity with family and friends and decided to homeschool my daughter. Meanwhile, I never stopped programming. I learned more about HTML, CSS and Javascript, then when Maddie got a little older and I had more time, I learned Python -- which I then taught to her. This ignited that passion once again and I started looking into web development.
Last winter, Maddie decided that she wanted to give high school a try and I encouraged it. While homeschooling had been very fulfilling for us, we were having a difficult time finding teen groups and Maddie wanted to pursue more activities where she would be with other kids.
So, about 6 months ago I moved up my life plan. I thought I was going to be teaching Maddie for 4 more years, but that was no longer the case. I looked into programs and started learning on my own. I dove into web development -- Javascript, JQuery, MySQL, Ruby, Ruby on Rails.
Jump to today -- I'm getting prepared to start school tomorrow at Northwestern University where I am pursuing a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Web Development. Yes, I'm 45. Yes, I'm nervous to be going back to school, but I've got to say that I'm excited too. I've always loved learning and I'm thrilled to be attending a great school to learn something I've always loved.
Wish me luck!