BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!!!

On June 6, 1997 I, Mary Verdery, became a high school graduate. My dream had always been to go to college and earn my degree in communications and go on to become an active force in my work field. My parents helped me pack up everything I owned, much like many parents have been doing in the last two weeks. We loaded two cars and the bed of a pick-up truck and headed off to Anderson, SC for my first semester at Anderson College. I moved in on August 9, 1997 and met two of the most amazing "girls" ever. We were quickly left on our own as we all thought it was extremely "un-cool" to have our parents there chaperoning us (insert major laughing right here). Upon being left alone we realized we were alone and free to do and act however we pleased. I spent an entire year having the most fun I think I have ever had in my entire life! Little did I know that in May of 1998 I would be handed a very rude awakening!! My grades were not what they should have been in any way, shape, or form. I knew I was intelligent but I spent too much time simply having fun and not applying the study habits that I had formed in high school.

Flash forward to late July of 1998...

Summer school came to an end and all of the extreme effort I had put in to bringing my grades up had, in my mind at the time, been futile. My parents received a letter from the college stating that I would be placed on academic probation and I would loose what little bit of assistance I had been awarded. Because I attended a private, out-of-state college the loss of that little bit of assistance meant that I would do the exact opposite of what I had done in August of the previous year. I slowly packed up everything, loaded the cars and truck, and sobbed the entire way home. I quickly enrolled in Gainesville College and started school. I also began working at Unicoi State Park in Helen, GA. During this time I was still some what involved with the young man who was my boyfriend in Anderson although we had all but decided to stop seeing each other. I took one last trip to Anderson on a Friday evening that by all appearances was a normal evening. After dark things quickly turned worse and we all realized we were in the middle of a blizzard. My "boyfriend" at the time chose that weekend to tell me that he had enlisted in the United States Army. Needless to say we just assumed our "relationship" from that point was over. Little did we know....

July 15, 2000....

At 4:08am on July 15, 2000 I was blessed with twenty little, tiny fingers and twenty little, tiny toes. Their names were Mary Catherine and Caroline Williams. Needless to say, at the age of almost twenty-two years old, my hopes and dreams for a college degree and a fast paced career were put on hold. I traded all of that, happily at the time, because my daughters were the most amazing thing I had ever seen or done. The man who was my boyfriend that joined the army had become my husband and the army moved us to Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, in October of 2000 when my daughters were 6 months old. I guess you could say at that point I made myself completely give up the idea of going to college and finishing my degree. My son Charlie was added to our family on August 8, 2002, and in the back of my mind I had one continuous thought, "So much for finishing my degree. I'll be busy being a mother until they are 18 and I will be 40."

One last and very quick flash forward....August 2008....

While looking for a part time position to make extra money and help in my now single mother status, I came across a position at Piedmont College. For the first time in almost 10 years I actually realized I could finally entertain the notion of not only working at Piedmont College but attending school while working. I started working for Dr. Betsey Blakeslee in September of 2008 and started attending classes in the spring of 2009. I am currently in my third semester in the Mass Communications department and I am planning on graduating in December of 2012. The best advice I could give to any of our departments freshmen and sophomores.....finish what you start and take the time to realize that one decision you might kind of think about making can effect the rest of your life. I am now confident that I will finish my degree and go out to show the world my talents and the reason I have wanted a degree in communications since I was 16 years old. I also hope that by showing my children my determination they will realize how important it is that they follow the path of least resistance, so that they can finish and follow what ever their dreams may be.

So, in conclusion, I would really like to know if there are any other moms, college students, children of single moms who went back to school, and any body else who might have something to add. What would you alter in your life to attempt to have things play out the way you always thought they would?