The Wandering Photographer: Back to School

If you’ve read my “about” page (you do read those, don’t you?) you know that I am about to embark on an educational journey that will hopefully lead to a Master of Arts in History. The question of course is what could possibly have made me decide to return to school at 56 years old and to study history of all things?

Circumstances dictate strange things these days. I was a “non-traditional” student in the past and it appears I am going to be one again. Seventeen years after dropping out of college, I returned to Wayne State University to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in 1997 at the age of 45 (all the while working full time as an automotive engineer). Within a year or so, I found myself bored, so I decided to start working on a MA in History “just for fun.” It turns out that working full time and completing a MA is somewhat incompatible, so I put aside school figuring I might go back after I retire.

Page forward about nine years to October 2009, I find myself downsized, along with several thousand other engineers, with few prospects for reasonable work.

I stopped in at my local community college and met with a counselor. Under the Trade Readjustment Act I am eligible for training money, but only for specific jobs such as health care and truck driving. None of those hold much interest for me at this time in my life. The counselor recommended that I return to Wayne State and complete that MA.

The more I thought about it the more it made some kind of weird sense. No, the state would not pay for it, but I have enough saved to cover tuition myself. No there aren’t a plethora of jobs in history out there, but by the time I finish, we will hopefully be well on our way out of this crisis and I will find some meaningful work. This will also give me the opportunity to do some part-time teaching in my retirement which is fast approaching.

I do face this new challenge with some trepidation. I finished my BA in a program that was largely made up of older (40+) student so I fit right in. My earlier work on the MA was at night, so at least some of the students were close to my age, mostly working high school teachers. Attending classes during the day means that I am likely to be one of oldest students in class. In fact I might just be older that some of my professors.

I am really looking forward to getting started and back into the academic world. It will feel good to be doing something intellectual and worthwhile, at the same time working hard to accomplish something that as a mediocre high school student I never imagined doing.

My major area of study is Early American History (to 1877) with an emphasis in the early republic. My minor area is African History. I completed the course work in African History during my time at Wayne last decade and hopefully most of those credits will carry over and I won’t have to repeat very much course work. I have always had an interest in history and historical figures and this will give me a chance to explore that body of knowledge in a more formal way than I have in the past.

The focus of this blog is still going to be photography but look here for occasional articles about topics in history and my new educational adventure.

Wish me luck!