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| Went to college. Then went in the military. Then went to college again for a different degree.
Big difference the second time. You won't be easily intimidated in philosophy class. Hell, you won't be easily intimidated in any class. You will study more effectively, get better grades and have a good time without getting blasted. |
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| Originally posted by lanaki:
well...here i am, a 52 year old edumacational rebel. i absolutely despised high school
Congratulations Randy and best of luck with it.
I'm 52 as well and only went to high school to work on my car or hang out with my friends. Rarely looked at the material until the night before an exam and managed to cruise through while doing as little as possible.
Went to art college for 3 years after high school and owned an advertising photography studio in Toronto for about 10 years after that.
I got bored with photography and decided to become a lawyer so I went to university full time for 3 years to get a BA and then another 3 years at law school for the LLB. After that I completed our bar admission course which was an additional 4 months plus the required one year term of articles with a law firm. Almost 8 years from start to finish.
Even though I had never been interested in academics at high school, nevertheless, once I decided that I wanted to go to law school I just got started and took it down piece by piece. I'm sure you will do the same - having a goal and being willing to work hard is probably the biggest part of it.
I often remember my mother shouting at me once when I was about 16 - she said something like the following: "you've got a good brain but you won't use it, if you'd spend as much time at your studies as you do banging on that guitar you could be a doctor or a lawyer."
Well, I guess she was right but I'm still banging on that guitar..lol |
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Location: Michigan | Randy please learn how to deal with taking care of PERI ANAL ABCESSES .We as brothers need to take care of each other.You need to know of the proper medication to give out. :D GWB: :eek: |
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Location: Sunshine State, Australia | Enjoy the moment, Randy.
I went to Uni in my late 30's. Loved it, then hated it, then loved it again, then went all ambivalent. I was lucky to have a supportive wife througout.
The only real thing I learned at university is that people with a degree AREN'T smarter than those without. They just think they are.
About your car windows, Randy. In Australia, its only the windscreen and 2 front windows that require legal tint. The rest of the windows can be as dark as you want. You might want to check up on that before removing all of them.
Also, when new auto rules come into being, they shouldn't be retrospective. If your car's windows were legal when they were tinted, they should still be legal.
Mark??? An American law perspective please? |
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| Originally posted by muzza:
The only real thing I learned at university is that people with a degree AREN'T smarter than those without. They just think they are.
A valid point, worth repeating. I found in dabbling with Mensa for a while that intelligence itself is not the be all and end all of being "smart".
There are many components of what comprises a truly competent human being. Knowledge and intelligence are but two of them. |
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Location: Cork, Ireland | Congratulations! I went to college way too young (not yet 17), and can confirm that education (like youth) IS wasted on the young. Mind you I did learn 2 useful things, how to cook and how to play guitar. |
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Location: South of most, North of few | Echoing what everyone else has said, enjoy it Randy. Good talking to you the other day. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Muzza, one of the joys of living in the "United??" States is that we have 50 states with different laws and a bunch of layers of government above and below the states with their laws. Keeps the lawyers employed. In Idaho we make it up as we go along. |
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Location: Parrish, FL | Mark, not just in Idaho. It seems to be the case everywhere you go.
Randy, Congrats on your new endeavor.
Coincidentally, this is a path that I am exploring as well. RN's that are willing to move around as Travel Nurses seem to be in high demand and are compensated fairly well. I know several that work in the Caribbean several months a year and cruise the islands the remainder of the time. That's the life for me!
I didn't get organized to start this term, but summer is looking good, especially if the job market remains as weak as it is now.
Blues |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | As Moody mentioned, RNs are in high demand, but not everywhere. We have a friend in Washington who hasn't been able to get a job as an RN in her town in 5 years.
It will get worse, partly because of the aging population, but also because the demand causes pay increases primarily in hospitals, which means there are fewer qualified nurses to teach, so there aren't enough teachers for more classes and nursing schools, so there aren't enough new nurses to replace the retiring ones, etc. If you can get into it, go for it. It looks like one of the few good long term markets. That being said, one of the local large hospitals announced significant layoffs yesterday because of the economy, but I don't think they laid off any nurses. |
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Location: Bluffton, SC | I had never heard of one before this but my next door neighbor is a "contract nurse" and he bops around to different hospitals as the need arises and it apparently arises pretty often because he's ALWAYS working. As with most freelance type deals, the pay is very good and you can pretty much call your own hours but the benefits suck (read: get your own) but it's working out well for him. |
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Location: big island | mahalo for all the support and kindness. what a club!
i don't view learning the nursing trade merely from the financial/job security factor. i perceive that any ministry of healing i may learn now will also be beneficial to those in need in a dreaded economy later. i'd like to be prepared to help, as much as i can, those who have no medical plan or medical access in the days to come. ultimately, i desire to learn triage/emergency/trauma diagnosis and treatment. y'never know, i may have to set up a field hospital high in the mountains one of these days. a civilian MASH unit!
and what medicine can't heal, music will. i'll need a tent full of ovations. |
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| Randy - I missed your second post. You're becoming an RN? When I mentioned I went for a different degree the second time around - that was it.
You'll do well, but clinical might be difficult for a grown man. When I went through in '75 there were still instructors out there who felt men should not be in nursing, and I ran into a couple in clinical (this is where most of the part time instructors are found) They were gunning for me but I had been a corpsman, so they couldn't get me on much. They hardly let me do anything in OB, but fortunately that is where I had worked in the military.
I subsequently went to anesthesia school, so now I am a CRNA.
I don't know how much my thirty year old experience will relate to what you will face, but if you think it can, e-mail me. |
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Location: big island | thanks, losov.
when i was a junior in high school i trained to be a hospital orderly (male CNA). i was the only one there at the time and ended up assisting in ER, OR, passing catheters for male and geriatric female patients prn throughout the hospital. joined the army reserve as a corpsman and began clinical specialist (91C) school. quaaludes and women sidetracked me from completing that course. went back home to hawaii and worked in various hospitals, on call for several years. i then got involved in sales, food brokerage, mortgage brokerage and the art gallery business. at 52, i'm glad for the many experiences i enjoyed and made very respectable income in, however, from this perspective i wish i had continued with nursing school while the army was paying for it. i probably would have gone on to be a physician's assistant and a warrant officer. i just wasn't military minded. |
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Location: Portland, OR | The downside: The process of school, learning testing, etc. is left behind with youth and has to be relearned. The upside: The disadvantages of youth such as immaturity, multiple distractions and the desire to simply get by, are replaced with a better perspective and direction.
Good luck in your studies. |
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Location: big island | in response to the window tinting: recently all the inspection stations here received new units to check window opacity. the rules were also made more stringent, "for the protection of law enforcement" and homeland security nonsense! so even if your vehicle passed last year's inspection, it is required to remove tint that does not meet the new guidelines. on a car all tinted windows are checked. SUV's and trucks may have darker tint on back side and rear windows. if a pro tint installer applies film that does not meet the guidelines, the business is fined $250 per window. if installed by private persons the owner of the vehicle gets the fine. an inspection station checks the tint first thing and if it does not pass they do not inspect further. i replaced my front driver's side and passenger side tint just a few months ago as the original tint was peeling. i took my car to two different stations yesterday hoping for different results. at the first station the lady told me my new tint did not meet the guidelines. i asked her to check it again and after she wiped an area of the glass with her sleeve, she got a better reading and said it "just barely passes". the back sides and rear are obviously darker and they fell far short of the max allowable opacity. this tint was on the car when i purchased it. she suggested i go to another station down the road that may allow my tint. i'm thinking "typical"!
next guy checks and my front side windows gave him high readings too, until he moved his unit around a bit. the rears were not close. so, in order to get the inspection done and a bumper sticker proving it, i've got to remove about 3/4 of my tinting. just about every vehicle in hawaii is tinted out of necessity. in an already dire economy this comes at a very bad time for us. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | I have a great deal of experience with nurses, or one in particular. It still seems to be a girls club, but male nurses are much more accepted and in demand. I attended one nursing class with my wife-to-be about 1976. There was one guy in the whole class. I was jealous, especially when he went with a bunch of the girls on Spring break to Florida and I didn't get to go. It might still be a great career choice for a single guy, or even for a not single guy. |
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Location: big island | mark,
i recall back when i worked in the hospitals that male nurses were usually held in high regard and welcomed on the floors. in my non-professional capacity, i was always welcomed too, not necessarily for my brain but for my brawn! now what was said amongst the female nurses behind closed doors, i do not know. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | I've never heard a female nurse say anything derogatory about a male nurse. I think the profession would love to have more men. Men were just expected to be doctors and women nurses back then. There are many more female doctors now, so I assume the stereotypes have faded.
I wonder what they would call a male midwife. |
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Location: big island | midhusband? midotherhalf? midjerk? |
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Location: Parrish, FL | midhusband? midotherhalf? midjerk?
Keep going, you're getting closer! :D |
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| Originally posted by Mark in Boise:
I wonder what they would call a male midwife. A midwife. Haven't encountered any yet, but I hear they're out there. And yes, there are derogatory things said about male nurses. |
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Location: big island | and now, for the rest of the story:
so i went to a local window tinting firm for an estimate to install new, legal tint to the back and rear side windows. $185.00. i decided i'd bite the bullet because my daughters need sun protection and i like that others cannot easily view my kids in the back seat. so i make the appointment for the following day. i then drive to a third inspection station where the guy doesn't even check my windows and 15 minutes later, $15.00 broker, i'm headed home with a smile and an up-to-date inspection sticker! called and happily cancelled the tint appointment.
college is challenging me. especially algebra. but i'm really enjoying it all. so far... |
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Location: Chicago | Godspeed, Randy!
If it is any comfort: your OFC brother dobro has been stuck in a higher edumacational vortex for 30 years! As faculty at a few institutions over the years I've seen students of all ages. There is a simple rule, really: the older, the better. My best ever was an evening class of returning students, all in their 50s and 60s. The only learning community that regularly reproached me for not assigning enough! |
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Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | Congratulations Randy! I'm thinking about going back to school myself if my company goes "belly up". The best of luck to you! |
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OT: a rebel looks at 52 ~ old dogs, new tricks...
