Continuing Education

After finishing high school I went on to college.  After college I married.  Continuing education is the knowledge we attain through experiences we get once we leave school.  And no experience gives you more or stays with you forever, like your very first "real" job.  Because, let's face it, baby sitter, and cashier, just don't cut it as real jobs.

The First Boston Corporation, renamed several times since I worked there, was my first "real" job.  I was young, a newlywed, eager to please, and very much out of my league.  The girls who worked in Mergers and Acquisitions where all Account Managers (fancy title for chief cook and bottle washer really).  We plotted graphs, tracked stocks, researched companies, got coffee, booked lunches, bought presents, and attended functions.  The formal functions were fun, but as a young newlywed... quite dangerous.

I learned more from watching, listening and pretending during my time at First Boston, then anywhere else in my life.  The female brokers where sharp, young, beautiful and knew how to navigate through a merger.  They sailed on the Hudson, lunched at the 700 Club, and held meetings in Martha's Vineyard.  Oh, how I envied them!  To have their freedom, and their lifestyle was something I would dream about long after leaving the company.  And sadly it wasn't very long that I stayed in that job before moving to Europe with my new born and my husband, leaving everything behind except my memories.

Oh! To have given flight when I was young and eager to take on the world.  Looking back, is like a slide show of happy memories.  Most of the past forgotten, we see only the highlights.  Or, do I see what could have been, or would have been "if"?  Probably.  But, what remains after looking back is the understanding that life brought me to where I am today.  Making me the person I have become so fond of, and hold in high esteem.

Without my continuing education I would be like so many middle-class girls.  Never leaving their comfort zone, or experiencing people and places beyond the next town.

It's exciting really.  Life that is.  The unknown, and unexpected turn out to be the cherry on top.  Taking risks and daring to venture outside the safety zone we not only expand our horizons, but fill up our box of memories for those rare quiet times when we can flip through our slide show and reflect on how brave, and daring we have always been!

I am fortunate to have enrolled in yet another of life's courses.  It's like nothing I have ever taken before.  Am I afraid?  You bet I am!  But as I hold on for dear life, I also look forward to the many bumps along the way... those are usually the experiences we cherish the most!