If you know me at all, you know I value an education. Coming from my family it would be hard not to value it. My parents both got college educations, my mom all the way to her doctorate. My dad faced incredible odds moving from NY to GA to attend UGA. My grandfather, on my mother's side, was the department head of Sociology at UGA. My mother was a teacher and now I am too.
To say it was easy for me to get a college degree would be a total lie. First of all, I didn't know what I wanted to do in life so I dropped out and didn't return for 2 years. Once I made the decision, I attended WCU and the education program was not easy. Fun, yes. Easy, no. However, I was able to maintain a 3.8 GPA and graduate Cum Laude.
I guess all of this is on my mind because it seems to be the topic of conversation in my home a lot lately. I am headed back to good ol' WCU in the fall to pursue my Masters degree in Special Education with a concentration in severe disabilities. After earning his Associate's degree at Southwestern, Dereck is finishing his Bachelor's in Criminal Justice at WCU, and maintaining an incredible GPA (I didn't know he was capable, hahaha!). A lot of his time and hard work is spent on the computer typing papers, researching, etc. I don't think he would say it was easy either. However, when I first met him, he was one of these, "I don't need an education to prove I'm good at my job." Now, after many hard hours of school work, he now sees that an education is about bettering oneself, not proving anything. I would say it's safe to say that we hope Peyton will certainly choose higher education for her life as well and we put aside money every month in order for her to do so, since getting an education seems to get pricier every year.
The one thing Dereck and I are seeing more and more of is that most of the unedcated people in our lives, just don't seem to get it. Dereck can really see this since he used to be one of them himself. He asked me when we got married if it bothered me that he didn't at least have his Bachelor's degree. My honest answer was, "Yes. But not to the extent that I wouldn't marry you." I am incredibly proud of him for returning to school when he was ready to put the time and effort into it. Anyone who knew him fresh out of high school knows he certainly didn't put much effort into it then! :) People constantly ask us why we're going back to school at a time when our daughter is young, the cost is high, and Dereck is in a job where he doesn't necessarily get more money for more education. We know that we don't need an education to prove to the world we can do something. We know we don't need one to prove to the world we can write papers and stay up all night studying. But we do know that we truly value it and can better ourselves, at work and home, by gaining higher education. This is something most people don't understand until they go through it themselves. I'm not sure if it's jealousy, intimidation, or something else. I certainly don't mean for anyone to feel intimidated or jealous of me for a degree in which I chose to work for. I'm sure Dereck would say the same. I certainly do expect people to respect my degree and the hard work I put into it. It's not something I take lightly. I was incredibly fortunate to have parents who supported my education and did everything they could to help me, including no school loans! Yay!
My mom once told me (one night when I was in college and was stressed to the max and crying) that I would never regret getting an education because it's the one thing NO ONE can EVER take away from me. It's true. I can lose my car, my house, my possessions, even my job, but I can't lose that degree. Thank goodness!
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