Mom Success: Going Back to School

Here is my story of a thirty-something-year-old Mom returning back to school in a career she didn’t know a thing about.

I’m Missi. On October 5, 2003, I became Missi, Nevaeh’s Mother. And since then, I’ve been sorta winging this whole Mom thing. And then came Josephine. Somehow I sort of lost Missi along the way and just became the girls’ Mom.

This is my declaration of imperfectness, my truthful confession that some may call selfish: I love my girls, but I am more than a Mother.

Recently, I had a slap of realization: I’m not feeding my passions in life. Or if I even had any left. It was time to make some changes. My entire being has been wrapped around the girls, and then a few months ago I read a quote that hit me like a ton of bricks. “You are more than just a Mom”.

I was happy with being a stay-at-home Mom and I made it my mission to be the best I could be. And when some things changed and I need to work more I was just fine with it. But it changed something inside of me. I felt like I now had a bigger purpose in life. This “some of the time” blogging wasn’t enough for me anymore. I wanted MORE! I wanted to make a name for myself that wasn’t just Mommy Missi. I just felt like there was more I wanted to do with my life in general. Something BIG. Something amazing. Am I wasting my existence waiting for the next time my kids need me? What to do, what to do…

Read the rest of this ‘More than just a Mother‘ story here.

At the beginning of last year, I had to sit down and have a serious conversation with myself. I had done many things leading up to this point in my life, but they just weren’t enough for me. With life, everything always moves in a forward direction, so why wasn’t I? This is when my family and I decided it was time for me to go back to school.

Trust me when I tell you that going back to school after being a work-at-home mom is the real deal. After all, if it were easy everyone would be doing it, right? So cliche! And yet so true.

Here is my story of a thirty-something-year-old Mom returning back to school in a career she didn’t know a thing about.

What I decided to pursue:

With careful thought and consideration, I decided to go back to school to get a degree in Software Engineering. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to the design, development, maintenance, testing, and evaluation of computer software.

Deciding to commit:

After spending hours and hours doing research on various boot camps, colleges, and other online programs, I finally found a school that fit my needs and was exactly what I was looking for. October of 2018 I enrolled in Kenzie Academy and my life has since been changed. Read more about Kenzie Academy here.

My courseload:

It’s a lot! The Software Engineering program is full-time: Monday-Friday 9 a.m.- 5 p.m.

Juggling life with schoolwork:

Ok, I am going to keep it real with you. Keeping some sort of work-life balance has been a struggle. Having such a rigorous schedule, keeping up with the housework, kids’ homework, my homework and still finding time to be a human has been a bit difficult. Especially when life happens or the kids get sick. Those are missed days which puts me about 8 hours or so behind everyone else in the class. But! I am surviving and am thankful for this opportunity.

What I love:

I’m really enjoying getting out of the house and creating this new life. It truly is an exciting thing to see yourself grow in ways you could have never imagined. Plus, at Kenzie, I get to sit in on some people cool Innovation Series -listening to and meeting some of the top people in tech and business sharing their tools of the trade.

Words of advice:

Because I am juggling my student brain with my Mom brain, it’s been best practice to always make full use of my time. When at school, I try to use that time only for my studies so that when I get home I can use my Mom brain for everything else. It can be hard to switch between the two but I am getting better every day. Also, get in the habit of routine. Skip the Netflix and study as much as you can. I promise it will all be worth it when you get to see the bigger picture.