The Stress and Reward of Returning to School

When I decided to return to school after a fourteen year break, a lot of stressors became apparent in my life. The first known stressor that affected the added task of returning to school was work. Being that I tend to be very busy at the work place and sometime bring work home with me, it took a toll on me rather fast. The second stressor was trying to take care of the household. Trying to find time in-between cooking, cleaning, washing, and school assignments had me running around like a “chicken without a head”. The third was being a single parent and adding another task into my already busy life. My children also had to be tended to with their homework, sports, and all the things kids love to do. For all of these stressors, I found myself calling my mentor who recently retired from the military and asking his advice. By calling him and discussing my three stress issues, he and I came to some conclusions on how to deal with them in the proper way. We decided to make note of my every day task needing to be done throughout the day. We then prioritized them and set the time frames for when they had to be done on a weekly schedule. After we set a schedule up for everything, I found that I wasn’t as overwhelmed as I thought and was mainly just experiencing the initial shock of returning to school.

In the process of being back in school for the first three weeks, I was told that I would have to undergo multiple surgeries for all my medical issues concerning my spine. The first one scheduled just before my second class and there was no way around it. Although I made arrangements through the school and work, I knew I was going to have it hard with the pain medication, physical limitations, the other surgeries to come, and keepin...

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...ving force for what will become of me after retirement from the Air Force. For instance, it will give me confidence and assurance that I will be marketable in the civilian job market. My hope is to one day after retirement, become a civilian manager under the military overseas. This would not only give me a satisfying job but will enable me to still give back to the younger generation in the military.

Going back to school has been a stressful yet fulfilling experience, giving me an edge over present and future goals. It has opened my mind up to more possibilities and given me hope for a better future. I believe that even though there was and will be more stressors, it is what is to be considered good stressors. By doing this, I also think after my BA in Organizational Business Management, I will continue on to achieve a masters degree and broaden my education.