Challenges move student
when facing dinosaur time
by Nancy Ballard
South Campus student
What motivates people to challenge themselves at an age when many of their peers are slowing down and starting to plan their retirement?
The reasons are numerous, varied and, ultimately, personal.
TCC has a student body with a large percentage of older students.
As a nursing student on South Campus, I am one of those older students.
But I am certainly not alone.
Barbara Coleman is a fellow “dinosaur” (our own affectionate term) in my group at the nursing school.
She is ready for a paying career after having raised three children.
Barbara, like me, asks herself once a week, “Why? Why am I putting myself through this?”
Nursing school is hard; it’s stressful beyond belief sometimes. But, this is where I want to be.
All of the people in my nursing group are all smart and motivated.
You don’t leave a group like this once you are in.
You might hang on for dear life once in a while, but you don’t leave.
We all worked too hard to get here.
After 27 years as a flight attendant, I want to do something different.
Given the state of the major airlines since 9/11/01, it’s a good thing that I want that.
I read once that if you need a change and you aren’t sure what to do, do the thing that you fear most.
I had a lifelong fear of hospitals and doctors after a childhood bout with rheumatic fever left me hospitalized for four months.
I decided to learn more about the medical field and started with EMT training, followed by nursing prerequisites.
Another part of my motivation to challenge myself with school at TCC came from my desire to set an example for my sometimes motivationally challenged teenaged son, Matt.
I have tried pushing him into things, like sports.
He played football one year because I forced him.
He didn’t like it and wasn’t any good.
They stuck him in on defense and I think he may have recovered a fumble once—but that was only because he tripped and fell on top of a loose ball.
I’ve realized something about kids.
Feed them, love them and leave them alone.
Matt loves music; that is what motivates him.
He is a great guitarist.
I want my son to be proud of me that also motivates me.
Matt has forgiven me for the football thing.
He hasn’t forgiven me for the time I mistakenly put a beer in his lunchbox instead of a soda (I was tired that morning).
Football brings to mind the best local example of a dinosaur (our affectionate term, remember) choosing to challenge himself, Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells.
His challenge: Take the Cowboys back to the Super Bowl. It might be easier for him to pass a TCC nursing foundations exam than to get those Cowboys going again, but I doubt it.
The nursing tests are pretty hard.
A friend of my parents in Arkansas, Bill Garver, started paramedic school in Arkansas at the age of 75. He was really only looking to do some volunteer work at the time.
When it was all over, he was the oldest paramedic in Arkansas. His motivation?
He wanted to fill a need in his retirement community.
All people have their own reasons for the challenges they accept, no matter what their age. As the well-known saying goes, “Some-times you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. In the end, though, the only race is with yourself.”
Last Updated: 4/21/2004
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