Throwback Thursday Jan. 4/18

perhaps my quest for new adventures isn’t a new thing after all.  I had forgotten all about this particular essay, written 18 years ago.

Night School

Published: Women news magazine March 2000

Just after her fortieth birthday, a friend of mine decided to go back to school to become a nurse. It was an ambitious undertaking. She started with one night school course, English, and predicted it would probably take her five years to graduate, but, she announced, “I’m destined to be 45 anyway… so why not be a nurse.” That was ten years ago, she is now a practicing ICU nurse at St. Paul’s hospital and absolutely in love with her job.

Another friend enrolled in a Creative Writing course when she turned 60 and claims that it saved her life. I met her at a class I was taking, a year or two after she started her adventure. She was working through a variety of challenges in her life by writing about them. She said it helped her remain ‘sane’.

Night school classes don’t always have such dramatic results, they do however, always enrich your life. I have, over the years, taken a number of classes. When my children were babies I made a once a week date with my sister-in-law to take a Chocolate Making class. Over the next four weeks we gained ten pounds each, in a very creative fashion, and had a ball.

When the kids were a little older, my daughters and I enrolled in a Hair Braiding class. Once a week I toted a clean-haired child into the class room and proceeded to torture it for an hour as I learned new ways to do hair. It was a bonding experience not to be matched.

I have taken Black and White Photography and currently have a dusty darkroom which houses the wine bottles I need for my current adventure. Night school has allowed me to explore a multitude of fancies. Some have been flashes in the pan, others have lead to new adventures (chocolate making lead to aerobics in a big way!). Sometimes I used night school as an excuse to get out of the house with a friend. For a minimal cost we were entertained for a couple of hours and learned something in the process. It was a fun evening out. Other times I ventured out on my own and made new friends in the process.

When I took my first Creative Writing class, six years ago, I did it alone. It was the first academic Continuing Education class I had ever taken. Having been out of school for more years than I’d care to mention, it was with some trepidation that I walked through the door the first night. What I found in the classroom changed my life forever. I had found my niche. Since then I have taken several writing classes, attended conferences, met a host of like-minded people and joined two writer’s groups. My hobby has evolved into something of a passion.

Not all night school classes change your life… some are just plain fun. Cooking and craft classes don’t claim to turn everyone into Martha Stewart, nor do English classes always nurses make, but methinks you gotta start somewhere.