By Amy Nielsen

Think of your body as the box you have to unpack, to empty out the trash, so you can put more good stuff in.

Unless you get all the way to the toes, there is still junk in the trunk. Since many of us are going back to school on our own schedule, we have the luxury of setting ourselves up for success by taking the time to take out the trash in our brain and body before putting new stuff in.

What on earth is this woman talking about? I am talking about taking the time before you start school, work, or any new endeavor to make sure you are emotionally, psychologically and physically ready to take on the added stress.

When you become a student later in life, this is a really big undertaking. Unpack your junk so you have as clean a slate as possible.

What does that actually mean?

Take the time to check out your health. This can be as simple as making sure you are taking the best multi-vitamin you can and purchase new tea mug with calming tea. Clean out your fridge and cabinets of the junk food. The better you feed your brain the better it will learn the new stuff you want to put in there. If you haven’t had one in a while, get an annual checkup. It would be a huge shame to enter a new set of studies and have to quit because of some stress induced, physical malfunction that could have been avoided with a simple check-up.

Emotionally I’m still in the giddy, new toy stage of this all. I haven’t quite realized just how much more work I have loaded upon myself. I know that in due time, I will want to shut myself in the closet and make the world stop for about fifteen seconds; but right now I feel like I’m on top of the world and can conquer anything!

However, I am finding the psychological de-crapification of this process much harder. My choice to go back to school, again, is laden with baggage for me. This is where the majority of my junk is. I have already had two major careers. This will make number three.

 I already hold a bachelor’s degree in Technical Theater with a specialty in Lighting Design for dance, rock and roll, and musical theater; a field that is very small and very technically specific. I used that degree professionally for 12 years. I loved and still love that job and that profession.

But, that job was very physical and pretty unpredictable in an era when the norm for my cadre of friends was to work in a corporate cubicle. My career, meanwhile, was haphazard. I moved from midlevel job to midlevel job, twice refusing opportunities that, looking back on now, could have led to bigger opportunities, if I had had the guts to jump for it. In the end, I also went corporate, working for a distance learning company as a technical supervisor and learning center manager. The company I worked for went bankrupt in the dot bust of the late 90’s.

Months after the company closed, I had two deaths in my family and a health crisis. I was fortunate enough to be able to support myself through friends, family and governmental assistance. I, in essence, took a year off of life. In that year I decided to go back to school for the first time. I decided to follow my second passion and train professionally as a chef. I found a small school near my house with a good reputation and applied.

My very first day of classes was 9/11.

I finished the program with high marks and was asked to return over the summer to assistant teach the public programs. I also found a job in my new career in a niche that fit my personal history but was far from what the school had intended for graduates. I really thought I would come up with something while I was in school. Or perhaps I was hopeful something would fall in my lap? I just know I had lots of ideas but no real direction.

Fast forward a few years and several life events to include marrying a Navy sailor, the births of two children, including one with special needs, multiple moves, and retirement from the military. And, I am here again on the verge of returning to school. Much later in life.

I know how long it took me to get here and I am afraid of wasting this third chance. I get to choose what I want to be when I grow up, again! How exciting!

If the Navy taught me one thing it is that diversification as a spouse is key. If you can have several small things going you are more likely to be able to have a good ebb and flow of income as you move from place to place. Having a child with special needs opened my eyes to a whole set of people who need the kind of help I can deliver specifically because of my diverse background.

What is hard is looking back and remembering the feelings of doubt I had when I looked carefully at what I really wanted to do with my earlier degrees. I didn’t have a very clear idea of what I wanted to do then. In college, I had friends who wanted to work for specific industries, or directors, or in specific theaters around the world. In culinary school, I had many classmates with specific chefs they wanted to work with, places in the world they wanted to study, or career paths lined up. I wasn’t as sure of where I was going either time. I really have never known what I wanted to do when I grew up.

I feel a bit that way now, but I know that I can use all of the other careers I have had in my life to bolster this new career. My theater career gave me the tools to work in a team environment with highly creative people in a project based style where personal connections lead to collaborations, i.e. jobs.

I have the technical skills for my new career from my culinary training. I have been practicing school with another class I am taking that has a similar workload over a longer time period. Not only is it adding more knowledge base in a related field, it is helping me to work in a study time to our busy schedule a few hours a week rather than all at once. Even my “career” as a Navy spouse has lent its own skills to my choice. Semper Gumby!

So, while I feel like I have it together and ready to go, I still need to work on a more concrete plan for exactly what I am going to do this time next year when I graduate from this program. I need more direction as to why I chose the school I did this time around.

In my program there is time devoted specifically to helping students narrow their focus and set up a viable business for their post-graduation life. The school spends so much time on this topic that I feel like they want their graduates to be set up for success from the get go.

So, my junk is less but I think my left pinky could use a bit more tending to. I know I am physically and emotionally ready, and I am working hard at being psychologically ready too.