Returning to school

Next  I had to apply to the university, something I haven't done since I was 16, so this was effectively new to me. It's a highly bureaucratic process -- I spent a lot of time in the line at the post office and in front of a copy machine. When you're young, this is all great training for a lifetime of battling bureaucracy. When you've already well into that lifetime, it's just... another battle.

The time gap since my undergraduate work creates special challenges for me. For instance, I had to be creative when looking for letters of recommendation. I don't have any teachers to write glowing letters about my superior academic skills. So instead of professors, I got three people to write letters for me: my boss, my guitar coach (who, in fact, has a degree in education from Harvard), and my therapist. All were more than happy to help me out, and I'm banking on their glowing reviews.

Another challenge: I don't have ANY of the pre-requisite classes required for admission. Even those that I have actually taken don't count, because I took them more than seven years ago. So I've been scrambling to complete four classes before September; this at a time when a budget crisis means the local schools are raising fees and, more importantly, cutting classes. If anything keeps me from starting in September, it will be those pre-requisites.