SOLSC '18 Day Nine: Dreams of youth, Part Two

I'm going to fly back through time, to see what I was doing before I turned forty instead of the "wild things" my almost 22-year-old self planned for my future.

Here's the list again:

I was seven months into my first year of teaching special education when I wrote that list in March 1988.  I was probably feeling overwhelmed, wondering if I had indeed chosen the right career path.  Another college, after all, had offered a full scholarship in engineering.  But I was starting to date my current husband, so I stayed put. We were engaged the following March, and married the year after that.

I did talk to a National Guard recruiter about signing up, mostly because I missed the military life of my childhood.  My career military father and brother talked me out of joining; I remember my brother saying that it took me years to build my self-esteem, and he didn't want to see a drill instructor tear that away from me. 

I taught in the resource setting for six years.  I loved the students, but planning and teaching thirty different levels of reading, writing, and math wore me to the bone.  I left education when I got pregnant with our first child, sure that I could not be the mother I wanted to be and teach at the level I had been teaching.  

During the six years I was away from schools, I tutored, then worked as a unit clerk and desk assistant for the same NICU my daughter inhabited for two months.  My 22-year-old self certainly didn't see that coming.

I'm not sure when the idea of learning to scuba dive fizzled out.  I don't remember thinking about it after having babies.  

My husband did buy me a motorcycle before I turned forty, after I took a riding class to see why he liked it so much.  I injured my knee in the class and swore I wouldn't go back without practicing first, hence the bike purchase.  I practiced regularly for awhile, but riding eventually took a back seat to work and chauffeuring children and laundry.  My pretty Yamaha Virago is gathering dust in the garage.  Perhaps this first summer of empty nesting will tempt me to rev up that engine again.

I flew in a lot of passenger planes during the years between 22 and 40, but no military-style jets. I investigated getting a pilot's license.  I remember the cost was the main reason that dream was deferred; fuel and lessons were expensive!

I had false starts of returning to school before I had babies, entertaining ideas of getting a master's degree in special education and then another bachelor's in computer science; I was thinking of developing software for students with learning disabilities.  The graduate class in special education didn't help me be a better teacher, so I quit that path.  Learning Pascal programming (yes, it was that long ago) while teaching basic reading and math was just too much of a mind split, so that plan went away, too.

I ended up facilitating ARDs (IEP meetings) in our district's secondary DAEP (disciplinary setting) for eleven years.  That job didn't even exist in 1988.  I taught resource for three years after that while I worked on my library science degree.  I am enjoying my current job as a school librarian so much that I am thinking of getting a doctorate in the field, just for fun.  

My 52-year-old self is giggling a bit at the 22-year-old who wrote that "wild list"; what did she know?  Should I now write a list of wild things to do before I turn seventy, just to look forward to more giggles then?