Reflections on Starting Graduate School

So, I find myself back in school after more than 25 years in the adult world of jobs, parenting, and being an ordinary citizen.  It is both exhilarating and exhausting.  We had an intense first weekend with over 31 hours classroom time in 3 days; someone likened it to drinking from a fire hose!  At times I wondered, 'what was I thinking?' and at other times I thought, 'I can do this.'

Now that I have done some writing and lots of reading, I feel a bit more prepared ... I think that this is a goal that I can accomplish.  Go Cohort 41 - our goal is 2014!  Don't lose sight of the end result - new skills that will be valuable in whatever nonprofit we serve.  I am not so intimidated as I was just a few weeks ago.

One phenomenon that I found frustrating, until I had an "aha" moment, was the tendency of the profs to go from the general to the specific - sometimes over a period of days.  I would hear the big picture and think, 'that's great, but I need to know x ...'  Once I saw the pattern, I was able to relax a bit and trust that all my questions would eventually get answered.