I didn't realize 2011 was the year I would go back to school and pursue this avenue in Education. What am I doing? I never saw this coming from my December 2010 horoscope. I envisioned myself getting ready to retire and just moving back to a quiet, tropical island and living the last few years of my life in peace... not going back to school at my age! This must be a symptom of what they call a "mid-life crisis".
It all started when I came back from a 2 month vacation, visiting family in the Philippines. I left Canada on November 30, 2010 and returned January 31, 2011. I was happy that my 21 year old daughter, Mikhaela, finished her Masters Degree in Foreign Affairs and wants to be a Diplomat working for the United Nations. She is such a smart girl, accelerated in grade school and class president in her elementary and high school classes. She definitely inherited that from her father.
My trip was also sad because I said my final good-bye to my grandmother in the hospital. She was the "mother" I looked up to. She raised me since I was 10 months old and took over my care when I was hospitalized for german measles and laying in an oxygen tent. My grandma was a physician and an officer of the Philippine Women's Medical Association. She had 8 children, my dad was 3rd in line. All her kids grew up to be successful professionals but nobody wanted to become a doctor like her. I always knew she wanted someone to inherit her medical practice but nobody followed in her footsteps and it made her sad. I wanted to become a doctor but my dad refused to help me with the tuition cost and this was a big factor. I decided to become a nurse instead because it is still within the medical field and maybe someday I can take my PhD, I can still be Dr. Michelle Dixon right?
I started thinking if I should go back to school and pursue my love of law, ethics and human rights. After all, I already took the LSAT after Nursing school because I wanted to jump right into law school. Sadly, student loans prevented me from realistically pursuing this passion. I had to start working.
I decided to take a "dip" in the education pool again this year by taking my Provincial Instructors Diploma (PID) program at Vancouver Community College. I enrolled in the PID program in February 2011. I also saw the link VCC had on their website for the MEd program at SFU. I was interested in the MEd justice, law and ethics program but thought my career in Nursing education would benefit more if I take the Health Education focus instead. It was March 2011 already so I had approximately 4 days before their admission deadline to submit all the requirements for the MEd program. I challenged myself and did everything I can to gather all the necessary documents and submitted it on time to SFU. Now I am an official MEd HEAL student! This time I want to make my daughter and grandma proud of me.
I envisioned my first day of class with horror... I imagined walking into a room of smart, keen, summa cum laude grads sitting in an auditorium-type classroom, everyone typing in their fancy laptops answering the stern professor's questions. I saw our professor's name via an email Linda Milum sent and immediately thought, hmmmm.. Dr. Stephen Smith sounds like a 75 year old, white-haired genius professor with thick eyeglasses who may be related to Thomas Edison. I had nightmares and panic attacks weeks before September 16.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Dr. Smith when he greeted me with a warm smile at the door, that first day of class. He didn't even wear glasses, just for reading and he carried a backpack, not a briefcase... whew! Thank you God.
