Return to College
A true/published story adapted here.
After our dream house finally sold, we lived in a small rent house that was on the bus route for the kids’ schools. Traveling back and forth to Lumberton for one school year was difficult. Thankfully, the next year, I was able to get a position locally at Port Neches Groves High School. I was warned that my schedule would be difficult, but I had no idea how awful it would be.
I had five preparations, meaning every class period I taught a different subject. Each one was in a different room. I had no desk of my own not even a file cabinet. I did have a job and I did have insurance for me and my children.
I learned that the only way to increase my income as a teacher was to earn a Master’s Degree. I began gathering information.
Earning a master’s degree seemed like an adventure, but the thought of moving three children to another city; locating day care and a place to live for three months in the summer; and paying for it all was an overwhelming leap of faith, so I took one baby step at a time.
The process was not all smooth travels. For acceptance into graduate school, I had to take the Graduate Records Exam (GRE). I had not taken a standardized test in eighteen years. I would need three open slots in day care for the summer months in a city where the openings were few. I took baby steps of faith.
I prepared for the GRE, but even so, it was no easy feat. When I received the results, I had mixed feelings. I had scored fairly well on all three sections. Trouble was—they only counted two of the three, and I didn’t quite make the cut to test out for automatic admission to the graduate school at The University of Texas at Austin. This meant I’d have to gather letters of recommendation, transcripts, fill out more forms, and meet with the dean in order to be accepted on probation. This required swallowing my pride.
I could have given up at that point. I could’ve said, “Maybe this isn’t meant to be.” My desire to prove the test wrong was as strong as my desire to achieve something that would change my life. I made the trip to Austin, again and I had a brief meeting with the dean as a formality. He nodded, signed a paper, and I was accepted. It was my first inkling that determination, not scores, is a big part of reaching a goal.
I still would have to make arrangements for the care of three children while I was in class. Most openings in the nice childcare centers were not available just for the summer. Friends told me, “Parents pay for spots to hold them even if they aren’t using them in the summer.”
The university had an office for “returning students” that gave me a list of 100 childcare centers in the city. They had everything from tiny home-based centers to large ones. There were centers that focused on horseback riding, computers, and nothing at all. I wasn’t having any luck, until the day I visited St. Martin’s Lutheran, in downtown Austin. My thinking was that it would be too expensive and certainly wouldn’t have a decent playground located in the heart of the city as it was.
The elderly director cordially welcomed me and gave me a complete tour. She pointed out that the new playground had been given an award and then asked, “May I sign up your children?” Stunned I asked, “You know I have three children?” She said she did and I was able to enroll all three in one of the highest quality day cares in Austin.
The last piece in the puzzle was housing. It was too late to qualify for university housing and at the moment, I lived too far away to do the research on my own, so Carliss, a lifelong friend and Johnny’s sister, who lived in Austin began to search for me. Time was running out. I had a deadline for getting any of the down payments for tuition and childcare back. We had posted on bulletin boards in every place Carliss could think of. Shortly before the last week to back out she called, “I’ve found an apartment that you can sublet. It is in a quaint complex in the Clarksville area of Austin. You can lease it for the summer.” It was going to happen. But how would I manage the day-to-day routine and all the changes for the kids?
The shuttle bus system runs like a spider-web across the city with stops all over the university campus. Imagine my surprise when I learned the bus stopped at the corner near our apartment and drove directly to the corner of St. Martin’s Lutheran. I could also pick up either of two buses from the daycare center that would stop in the front of the education building where all my classes took place. This was truly amazing considering the size of The University of Texas at Austin, 431 acres with 150 buildings.
The odds of my figuring all that out and making it happen in my own power were slim, but one baby step at a time taken in faith blazed the trail and prepared the way for me.
After three summers on our final trek home my children put a poster on the back of our station wagon: “Hurray, hurray. We’re happy as can Mom just finished at UT.”
Faith
I could see a hand in this other than my own. I was no longer a charismatic Christian but I knew the events listed above didn’t just happen. Some call them synchronicities. I call them Divine.
Next entry will post in two weeks.
I raised three children as a single mother before I remarried. In 2007 I founded SMORE for Women, a nonprofit whose goal is Single Moms, Overjoyed, Rejuvenated, and Empowered. I’m also a Certified Professional Coach and my stories have been published in several Christian books and magazines. My book, Living Learning Loving is available on Amazon. My Website.
gailshowalterblog.com 
