Enlightenment and encouragement...and no I don't mean spiritual

I've been incredibly busy recently, not to mention I had some sort of disgusting flu/sickness for almost a week, but I'm still around and better than ever.

This week marks the midterm point for the semester. Anyone who's ever attended college, has a kid in college, or doesn't live in a cave knows what that means: exams. Woopety-poopety. :) Thus far this semester, I'm doing really well. It feels great to be successful not only academically, but also on a personal level. Asked if I could do this a year or two ago, I would have laughed in your face. Go me for getting my shit together. I'll also give credit where it's due. Without Lindsay I would not be here. She's the one who ultimately inspired me to go back to school. She's the one who for the first time in my life, gave me the confidence to do this and do it WELL. So, thanks babe.

Anyhow, so enlightenment. I still have to remind myself sometimes what the hell I am doing with this whole I'm-going-to-become-an-academic-at-thirty-years-old thing. Now that I am in it, am doing well, and am completely committed to it the number of kicks in the ass I have to give myself are shrinking, mostly because I'm good at being a student so my confidence is pretty much at an all time high.

However, that doesn't mean I don't like to be reminded by others. Everyone likes a nice ego stroke every once in a while. I got mine tonight. BONUS! Reward.

I finished rocking the socks off of my archaeology exam and decided to mention a few things to my professor. He's a graduate student studying archaeology (duh) AND cultural anthropology, which if you don't know by now is my obsession. My few comments turned into us talking for an hour and a half. I addressed a few of my concerns with him about "taking a different path", not having an extensive volunteer/study abroad history(many anthro majors claim this), what the hell am I going to do with an anthro degree, and any recommendations he may have for me. These are the issues that I debate in my head pretty much everyday, so this was a perfect opportunity for me to talk with someone in my intended field of study.

After talking with him, I've realized quite a few things. Number one is that everyone makes their own path in life. I'm always (still) so concerned that I'm doing this the wrong way or that I should have taken a more traditional path, right out of high school and off to college route.
Lindsay is constantly reassuring me about this, and after talking with my professor it is sinking in a little more. I think this will all just take time to adjust to, but I'm on my way.

The other major point I really took from our conversation, is that being an anthropologist will open so many doors for me. It's such a broad spectrum of life to study, so the possibilities really are endless, it's all up to me where I want to take it from here.

I guess it all boils down to the lack of outside AND personal motivation that I had for the first 28 years of my life. No one in my immediate family, and only one person from my extended family has ever graduated from college. No one ever encouraged me as a child or pressured me to go to college. I didn't really have much of a support system growing up. It really was all about surviving and working to pay the bills. Don't get me wrong, I think if that's what people want to do then by all means, go for it. It takes all kinds to make the world operate. However, I think that people, parents especially need to take the initiative to support their children and teach them that there are many options in the world.

Anyhow, just feeling enlightened and encouraged and thought I would share. It was really great to talk to someone in my own field about their experiences.