Write For Ten Topic : College Education

College education. Do you have one? Was it worth the cost? If you don't have one, do you miss it? 

I was a flop in high school--I had no interest in school, except that it was a place to escape to from home, so I went every day. But, I failed in math and english. I failed 9th grade english four times, so that when I was in my senior year I was still in a sophomore home room. I knew I had no chance of graduating with my class, so I quit school before Christmas break of my senior year.

I got married, had three babies in four years, and divorced by the end of the seventh year. I worked hard to take care of my little family, and tried my best to get my children to understand the importance of an education.  My son, though, did not think it was as important as I had been trying to tell him, and he quit school as soon as he turned sixteen.

One day after he quit school, I woke him up early one Saturday morning and told him we were going to go take our test for the GED. He protested, saying he had not studied for it and was not ready. I told him I had not studied for it either, but if we went together and took the test and didn't pass, then we would know what we needed to study for the next time.

To our surprise, both of us passed the test and got our GED certificates in the mail. When I held that piece of paper in my hands, I was more surprised at how I felt to have accomplished that! I was so proud. After all those years of not having a high school diploma, I finally had proof that I could do it.

I felt so good about getting that GED, that I went down to the local satellite campus of Mercer University and signed up for my first college class. I decided to take the required business math class first because I knew if I couldn't pass that I would not ever graduate. I made an A. As a matter of fact, I was on the Dean's :List for every quarter that I went to Mercer. Even when they changed the requirements for the degree I was working towards and had to take Algebra, I made the highest score in the class.

I never finished the degree--but I got what I needed from my time going to college--pride in myself, and the ability to say I was the only one of my siblings to ever go to college.