And, behold, thus endeth the first week of the survival of the nontraditional student among the people of Idaho.

Cracking open my anatomy and physiology books was intimidating. (This whole going-back-to-school after 16 years was intimidating!) I was beginning to wonder if I needed a pre-req in Chemistry. I had big doubts when I walked into the lecture hall. The professor is engaging and explained things much better than the textbook. Maybe I am just an audio-visual learner? After that lecture I had a new respect for my mom and all she went through to get her nursing degree.

The lab will be tough but I am actually looking forward to it. Last night we learned how to use the microscopes and looked at a swab of cells from the inside of my cheek. We also started on internal organs (need to make flash cards). One of my neighbors a few doors down is in my class and lab. I had no idea she was going back to school. (Instant study partner and car pooling, woo-hoo!) Most of my lab classmates are nursing students. Surprisingly, all of the men in the class are currently construction workers who are going into nursing or were majoring in construction fields but changed to nursing. Not much work in construction? Shortage of nurses? The rest of the class was majoring in radiology, or health information something-or-other. I was the only SLP major.

Another surprise - half of the students in both the lecture and lab look to be my age or older.

In the meantime, I believe Firstborn has a new respect for me, or at least college. He read over my shoulder as I was reading the assigned work before my class. He thought the dissected rat pictures and the cadaver pictures introducing organs were very cool.