Blogging Outloud

The first step is the hardest -- but once it is done nothing seems as hard again. When my sister was 12 years old, the last thing she wanted was to have her little sister tagging along with her. So when she and her friends had made the plan to walk across the salt marsh down the street from our house, they thought I wouldn’t do it. Little did they know that I would go anywhere my big sister went. Not out of spite, but out of an adoration that only siblings know. She let me come along but admonished me to keep up. 

The sun was low in the sky and the wind had picked up some. Her friends chided me when I was not able to leap over the inlets of water as easily as they had. Instead I fell in and got my new sneakers wet and muddy. My sister had to help me out of the mess. I began to feel like the whole idea was bad and that I would get in trouble now for sure. Her friends ran ahead. I began to cry; I just needed to go back to the other side. My sister told me to look up and see where we were, because the hardest part was behind us and all that was left were the tall grassy knolls. She laughed and said, “We are in the middle. If we go back we will have to do all the hard stuff again.” She took my hand and we both took off running through the tall grass to the other side where her friends were waiting.

Recently I have been thinking of this scenario as I am nearing completion of my degree program. The first step of the process was the hardest. Like crossing the salt marsh with my sister, making that decision to go back to college was a commitment I could not make on my own. I made it with my family and with the staff at Granite State College . It may sound silly but they need to know where I am in my process and when I need their help. Granite State College offers affordable college study, adult education courses and a helping hand when you need it. They really understand the complex needs of adult learners.

It's getting close to the end of another term and I still have six classes to go. It seems like I am still a long way out from graduating. But when I look back at what I have done here at GSC, those six classes don't look so far away anymore.