Back to School

For a long time now I’ve been considering going back to school. I want to study communications and I have enough credits from my previous college years to pursue a degree in that area. The thought of having to take courses I’m not all that interested in to acquire the degree isn’t that appealing to me however. I always liked school, but nothing I learned in school prepared me for life on any level. My first book should have read, “See Dick balance his checkbook. See Jane leave an unhealthy relationship. Run, Jane, run!” After meeting with a college advisor I learned it would take a little more than two years to get the degree. I’d begin the studies in January 2011. I’m undecided about what to do. How is it possible to be 49 years-old and still unclear about the direction you should take? I have a good friend who got her master’s degree in psychology a few months ago. She’s over fifty, still single, no kids, with 6 cats, but now she knows why. I’m not unclear about what I want to continue to write. I love the Old West and I’ll keep writing on the subject as long as I can. There’s so much Old West material to write about. For example – on this day in 1884, Doc Holliday shot Billy Allen in Leadville, Colorado over a five dollar gambling debt. Doc was arrested, tried and acquitted in that shooting. It was to be Doc’s final gunfight. Bad guy John Wesley Hardin left this world on this day in 1895. Hardin was attacked and killed from behind by John Selman during a dice game in the Acme Saloon in El Paso, Texas. So much great material! I could write about Holliday or Hardin, gambling or gunfights – the possibilities are endless. Too bad the local college won’t let me major in something like “Wild West Women” or “Outlaws and Lawman.” That’s a pursuit I’d get behind without hesitation.