Hello! My name is spaghetti oh and I've just signed up for an algebra course.

My first step in exploring a completely different area of work.

Algebra! =:-O

I was recently reorged out of a job I had for 20 years. Not the exact same job, but I worked for the company that long. Today was my second, um, day off. I'm probably going to do something very different; I just don't yet know what.

Do you find it kind of exciting and terrifying all at once?

I do. Mostly excited though.

When I was 40 I signed up for an algebra class. I had a serious math phobia. When I was in grade school I was abused over the subject. I had erasers thrown at me, I was humiliated, and hit a few times. All because my teachers didn't know how to teach.

At age 40 I decided it was time to slay the dragon. I figured if I could get through math the rest of it would be very easy. I was right.

However, I had to get through it first. The first day I showed up an hour early. I sat in my car and literally got sick. I made myself go to class anyway. I was way too terrified to learn anything. I talked to the teacher about my problem. She was amazing. That's when I found out I was far from the only one in my situation. She told me not to worry. She would teach me until I learned it. She told me I would teach others when I was done. That got a laugh out of me. She was right though. It was part of her system to have her students teach in the math lab. By the time I left her class I actually liked math.

My point is, if I can do it anyone can.

What an amazing teacher, Mia! I have always hated math, too, and couldn't do algebra now if my life depended on it. But I did somehow manage to get through five stats classes in grad school. Don't ask me to do any stats problems, though...

Yes, same here! I have post grad stats courses too but only 'high school math.' Strange ain't it?

In high school math was just a hell I had to get through to get my diploma but I'm now approaching it as 'riddles to solve' much like sudoku or other logic problems.

Mia, kudos to you for slaying that dragon!

Mia you are amazing! That's inspiring. Math really got the best of me in school too. I passed the course with a 50. :/ Honors in every other subject! Ugh.

& Spaghetti oh that is so exciting!! I wish you the best of luck on your journey:) You are awesome!

I had a major career change in my 30s. I was a nuclear engineer. I had my security clearance revoked when it was discovered that I am homosexual (it was considered a high security risk back then). I eventually gained employment in social services. I still have friends that inform me of physicist/engineering job openings, but I love the work I am doing now even if the pay is still nowhere what I was earning a couple decades ago.

That you love what you're doing now is good to hear, though the mind boggles at what risk you presented.... crazy, eh?

I'm 40 and I've just started (last September) a part-time Bachelors degree after 16 years of working in one particular place, and after 20 yrs of finishing College. I'm studying Museum Sciences (because this has always facinated me).
I have not done it and I'm not considering it... I am doing it ;-) and so far so good.
But the difference now is that I don't stress over grades and time. I'm just happy studying right now.
Hope that anyone who is considering it, will find a way to follow their heart's desire.
Have lots of fun with algebra Spaghetti Oh.

quebec Wrote:
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> I have not done it and I'm not considering it... I
> am doing it ;-) and so far so good.


Good point! :D And good to hear!

At least I'm making plans to. I keep thinking it's my turn to get laid off so I want to be prepared. Officially I'm an Art Major at UVU. That should make a great companion degree to go along with the Theatre and Film degree I finished 20 years ago.

Yeah, the job offers are just going to be poring in!

But seriously, life is too short and too precious to me now that I don't have the Celestial Kingdom to count on. I'm doing stuff that matters to me.

Ah, funny! Your post made me laugh. And smile because you're right. :-)

That's too funny....the Celestial Kingdom. Thanks for the laugh!

so I'm not sure if that counts. I did see a fair number if people returning to school to pick up a computer degree. If they had the time to go full-time, or close to it, the CS degree worked out pretty well for them.

I was a math major, and algebra II was the only D I got in HS. A couple of things about math classes:

Learning math is a lot like learning to play a musical instrument. It requires massive amounts of practice, it is learned more through the fingers than through the eyeballs, and some of it, like scales in music, is basically boring, but it builds other skills that come in handy.

Some people are born with better math skills than others, but the differences as not as huge as people like to think. Nobody expects to be able to sit down and play a Bach prelude without years of background training and practice on the specific piece, yet they seem to think that if they can't do a math problem after looking at it for 2 minutes, that they don't have and will never have the skill to do it.

Everybody learns to talk, though some people are better at it than others. Everybody these days learns the layout of a QWERTY keyboard. Everybody can be moderately competent at math, but like QWERTY or Bach, it takes practice.

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My advice - do twice as much homework as assigned. Seriously. Review it a couple of days later. Note the hardest problems, and go back and do them again about a week later. Do that, and the algebra course will be the easiest A you ever got.
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When I worked at a large software company, there was a group of 7 of us that got together once a week to work through the material in a math book that we were all interested in. [Concrete Math, by Knuth et al, a very challenging book on computer-algorithm-related math, but in only requires 2 years of HS algebra and much hard work to get through].

Everybody in this group had the equivalent of an undergrad math major or more. We all decided to work on one particular problem that had to do with rules for rounding numbers. The next week we all reported how long it took us to solve the problem. Two people found one solution, the other 5 found a different way to solve the problem that also worked. Everybody spent between 5 and 7 hours working on the problem.

Some problems are just hard, just like some sheet music is just hard, and it is going to take a while to get through them. Don't give up. Sleeping on the problem after feeling like you have hit a wall often works wonders. You get markedly better with practice. If you have done enough sudoku that you realize you are now much better at it than when you first started out, same thing happens with math.

Oh, and algebra is kind of the "practice your scales" of math. Not a great deal of fun most of the time, but it builds necessary skills. And a confession - I loved things like combinatorics, number theory, and the infinite series part of calculus, but I hated statistics classes, tolerated it when I had to work with it, and still don't like statistics much. Abstract algebra and topology can still make me break out in a cold sweat. But a lot of pianists are often only good at a few types of piano music.

Practice, practice, practice.

OMG, this is fantastic advice! Thank you!

I'm really starting to appreciate that I'm going to using my mind a bit differently than I'm used to! I've never even played a musical instrument (formally). At 44, I feel a bit like a kid again! (in a good way!)

Most of my previous education/learning has been in social sciences and revolved around abstract, analytical, perspective-taking thinking and sheds load of reading, essay writing and never, ever, ever having an absolute 100% correct answer for anything, ever. ;-)

following your advice is exactly how I went from throwing up, to getting an A in Algebra. As I went on to chemistry I used the same method. Easy A.

I actually got to the point where I enjoyed quadratic equations.It became kinda like doing crossword puzzles. I taught my 4th and 5th grade kids how to do them. They are both math lovers to this day.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2012 02:54PM by Mia.

I left a career as a molecular biologist at the age of 40 to go back to school for an MBA. I had a preschooler at the time, but also a very supportive husband. I have since had a second career in IT and more. You're never too old to take on new subjects, careers, life challenges.

Was in the Navy 8 years, submarine electronics technician.
Got tired of it, got out, got EE degree, UC Davis.
Spent 18 years as an EE at a Navy shipyard. Peace broke out, shipyard closed.
Spent next 17 years as an engineer in space launch. Body gave out, retired 2 years ago.

Now I can write backwards, think backwards, work backwards, and count backwards.

I wouldn't be able to stay in the same job or position my entire life. In about 5 years I plan on switching things up quite a bit.

5 years after that I'll probably do it again.

I like to consider myself a born-again student at the age of 31. There are a lot of ex-TBM women who, once they get out of the controlling clutches of Mo-ism, decide to do life the way they want to do it. I did accounting my whole life just because of one bank job I got connected to from a Mormon when I was first married. I am good with numbers, but it was never my passion and not what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing. A lot more people than you think are going back to school and making career changes. The economy sucks. It used to be that you had to have a degree to do anything. Now it seems like you have to have at least a masters to get ahead.

I'd taken time out to raise a family and stumbled on an opening in PR. I stayed in that area, gaining further qualifications along the way, until my retirement.

After I retired I was 'invited' back and did another 4 years. This was in the Military Industrial area where I'd spent the previous PR years. My earlier years, as a newspaper reporter (hack/Journalist) in the 60s was perhaps the most interesting, given that I was in the best place for it at the time.

Now I just hang around making a nuisance of myself :-)

Briggy

I also morphed, or adapted, to better take advantage of the opportunities in my environment. I stayed within my general career field but went from government to private industry then back to government with much better insight to strategic issues which has helped me move up.

I always tell people to strengthen their resume - seek new experiences and training opportunities. Staying in one place doing the same thing for many years isn't going to result in much career movement, unless that's exactly what you want. But you don't want to stagnate to the point where you become obsolete.

I'm doing this after being a grantwriter for the last decade. Phase I was to take a million prerequisites for nursing school. Phase II starts in the fall of 2013 when I embark on a Master's in Nursing.

But before that, I'm going to whip myself into shape enough to hike the Appalachian Trail before school starts.

nursing school is a wonderful education for life...

I went back to school after 5 years as a stay at home mom and got my nursing degree. After 20 years in nursing I was pretty burned out, and my horseshoer moved out of state. So I went back to school and learned to be a horseshoer. Two of the smartest things I ever did were going to school. I worked part time shoeing horses and for several years part time nursing. I'm getting a bit older now so I am back to full time nursing and part time shoeing. The change in carreer and the whole learn new skills thing has been great! Socially it has been really good for me too because I have always been shy and it made me get out and meet new people. I also really like that I can always make money and not have to worry about having a job. If you want to try something new I highly reccomend it

My friend returned to school at age 48 for a geology degree. He worked his arse off and has a 3.8 GPA. Chemistry, calculus, stats, etc. some very hard classes. He studied all the time. He's now almost done and is looking at some really good job opportunities. He was so nervous when he started he forced himself to sit in the front row. His profs say he's one of their best students.

I went to grad school in my late 30's in order to change career fields. I went from a creative field into teaching. I enjoyed going back to school and I did very well. Most of my fellow students were also career changers (police, military, law, accounting, etc.) The financial part of it was tough for many years, but it's finally paying off. I was able to buy a home and will have a secure retirement because of my decision.

As for teaching, I wouldn't do it again but would pursue a related field. It's always been interesting work, however. I've almost never been bored with my job.

I think it's really critical to interview people in your prospective field. Ask them what they like about their job, what they dislike, and what they'd do over again if they could.

After years as a SAHM (waitressing at night, babysitting, selling Tupperware, Mary Kay, and Amway), I got divorced and embarked on another frustrating decade or so of low-wage customer support and sales jobs while being a single parent. This continued for a few years after re-marriage, while DH started -- and failed -- a new business, started -- and lost -- a job as a truck driver, etc.

At one point, I was working three awful jobs to help keep the roof over our heads. The deal-breaker came when I joined a chat/e-mail support team headed by an old friend. After a few weeks, I saw the light and enrolled in university to get a degree in the one thing I'm good at: English.

At first, I was just going to teach HS. Now, I'm halfway through an MFA in Creative Writing, with a teaching assistantship that pays my tuition and a small stipend. I'll be applying next fall to PhD programs in Brit Lit and Creative Writing. I've been invited to present my work at several conferences and even had some success getting published. :)

I'm having way too much fun and wish I'd done this years ago!

Wow! I am really enjoying reading these experiences. It's so interesting to me how people's lives morph, change, ricochet in new directions. Thanks for all your replies, I feel that I'm in good company. :-)

Ok, I can't stay away. What you guys are doing all sounds great! The schooling is impressive! I'm a young ;) 51, and I tried to go back to school, but just couldn't handle it for some reason. Work and school...I burnt out quick. I need a rich husband to support me - that would work. :). Anyway, I am starting my own medical transcription business and pursing going after a government contract. I've been doing it for years, so I know it well. I started this years ago when I first started out, but at that time I had three kids at home at various ages. Too much and the internet/technology was not like it is now! Now that I have gained years of experience and expertise, I feel that I could teach other women to do what I do - if they so choose. Anyway, just starting the process...getting my ducks in a row, so to speak.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2012 08:40PM by missmarymac.

After getting divorced at 38, I needed to rebuild myself. One change: full-time job after being an at-home mom for over eight years. I had a bachelors degree but returned to complete a masters. I've been in education now for eleven years and it's been an awesome change.

Congratulations and good luck!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2012 08:57PM by toto.

i am quitting my job of 8 years. i'm 32 but the life i've had i'm probably middle-age haha