Thoughts on Education Later in Life

[Blueberry]

So I'm a bit earlier than you are in age, but have chosen a *very* long path. I have a BA, and a JD. I practiced law for almost 9 years. I wasn't happy, and I really didn't think there would be a happy place for me in law after a lot of soul searching. At 34, I started taking pre-medical classes. I'm more than half way done with the pre-med requirements now. I apply to med school next year. I will be 45-46 when I finish residency. I do not have *any* regrets now. I would rather do this and have 15 happy years working than to have the 20-25 years in a career I wasn't passionate about.

I was worried about losing more than 10 years in the workforce, and the impact of that on my retirement. But....I'll be making a higher salary as a doc - so it should all even out. DH and I have also made a lot of decisions (like selling our house) that make the finances work now. We are setting up good spending habits that we intend to keep - and the plan is to live well beneath our means so that we will still be able to save sufficiently for retirement. It's how we want to live anyway (smaller house, not an extravagant life at all).

My biggest concern was that my DH will likely have to hold off on any college-type things until I am done, and the strain that might put on our relationship. We have had several honest talks, and he is OK with the situation. He is also not 100% sure what he wants to do at the moment, so that helps. He also works in academia, so he is involved in research in his field, even if he isn't in school.

I was also worried that I would fail organic chemistry. That didn't happen, thankfully!

[salsabike]

I went through graduate school a second time when I was in my early 40s, having gotten somewhat burned out by school psychology. Since about '94, I have split between the two occupations (school psych and workforce/economic development policy research), and it's saved my sanity by allowing me to have two really diverse kinds of work, both of which I like in quite different ways. I would absolutely do it again.

The hardest part was being a poor grad student again. I didn't have any second thoughts, really, and I really loved learning totally new stuff that I was really interested in (international political economy, labor economics, stuff like that). Did an internship at a UN agency in Geneva and had to take out a bank loan to do it, but loved every minute.

But Chris DOES have standing orders to shoot me if I propose going back to school again. Actually, I love school except for all. those. papers.

What are you thinking about doing?

There's a lot to be said for enjoying what you do at work. Worth the pre-work to get there, for me.