Furthering your education past the age of 30

It's been awhile...a long while actually. I sincerely apologize, sometimes life gets in the way of...posting a blog. To be completely honest, I had almost forgotten about this blog. A kind and younger friend who I grew up with and who blogs over at http://rebeccasimplement.blogspot.be/ is the one who brought it to my attention again recently. It's one thing to like writing, it's an entirely different thing to make time for it on a consistent basis. Sometimes I have stories for days but really have no idea how to bring them about. Anyhow, today I want to speak about a topic that has been on my mind for some time now: education past your 30s. If you're in your early thirties, then chances are that you've already completed most of your formal education and you're probably wondering: what's next? For those of us who are not entirely set on a doctoral degree this can be a challenging and puzzling question. The same goes for those of us who chose rather broad disciplines while in college and thus are not yet settled in the path of our own choice. Those of us who, as Tamisha Ford puts it, have a shadow career. This is also a time when you are most probably completely self-sufficient and thus carry the badge of honor of every full grown adult: bills. Which means that you either have insufficient funds to attend fulltime classes and/or enough time to actually be present at them. Or a combination of both of these problems. How does one go about solving this issue? In the following weeks I hope to be able to share as many tips as possible concerning this. I will also keep in mind that we all have different living situations that may either aid us or hinder us in someway in this endeavor. One thing I will say though, is that I will speak from the viewpoint of a 21st century single Christian woman with a hectic schedule to boot! I think the fact that my schedule is hectic might resonate with many of my peers this day and age. 

Tip 1: Make a personal curriculum

We've all had to deal with curricula that were imposed on us, in which we had little say concerning the time and place, for years upon years. Well, gone are those days. When embarking upon the fun task of making up a personal curriculum, have a long term vision. Yes, many of us have learning goals that we could attain in as little as one year but those rarely translate into monetary gain. And although I do not wish to take the fun factor out of learning past your thirties, I must remain realistic and make a distinction between hobby's you learn for leisure and the ones I'm mainly discussing here. So as I was saying, ask yourself: what would I like to master in 5 to 30 years? What would I truly like to be extremely good at? This alleviates you from intensive learning in a short amount of time to actually learning little by little, which yields the best results in my opinion and still leaves you with ample time to tend to your daily schedule in the moment. The term personal here can be understood as making it tailor made specifically for your particular needs and the direction in which you want to move in the future. Depending on your specific situation you may want to allocate 1 to 3 hours daily on a particular subject throughout the week. Or if you're more like me, you may designate a specific day in the week in which you just learn about your subject of choice. 

Tip 2: Make and keep it fun!

Here is something else that is a thing of the past: cramming. Perhaps this was not obvious from my previous tip, but I highly recommend becoming an autodidact. The great thing about this is that we live in an age that totally lends itself to being an autodidact: the internet age. Now, if your time schedule permits you to attend classes in the evening to master a new skill, then by all means do so. It's also a nice way to socialize and get to know new people with the same interests as you. But as previously stated, if your time schedule simply does not permit this then the internet is your friend. The great thing about this is that you can completely manage your time schedule, you decide when and where you digest the material at hand depending on your learning style. Mocha Mom CherishMyDaughter on youtube, who homeschools her children, has some great videos explaining what your learning style may be, feel free to check them out. Remember to make and keep it fun once you've discovered your learning style. It's quite possible that your learning style is a combination of two or more learning styles, make ample use of that. Think of creative ways to put that to great use. To give a small example from an area I like (languages and cultures): I'm fluent in Portuguese (my native tongue) and English amongst other languages. In order to improve fluency in these languages, I have changed the set up to my iPad to Portuguese and I've also been a member of an American hairforum for nearly a decade. It's fun for me because I enjoy being on the computer, talking to people from around the world and I get to learn the written form of these languages. On the particular forum I frequent, I get to learn more about American culture (and a number of other cultures such as Carribean and other regions of Africa) while socializing and getting invited to new countries while discussing another topic I thorougly enjoy day in and day out: hair. It's a win-win. I do not know what your area of interest is and what you would like to master in a number of years, but whatever it may be, remember to make and keep it fun!