evagabourel

Back to School!

Written by Eva Gabourel on March 6 2015

I graduated from Sacred Heart Junior College in 2003 and decided to take a break to get professional experience and make money by seeking employment. Getting my first job and successfully climbing the ladder to a better job each time, progressively, gave me independence and financial liberty so I kept putting school on the back burner. My life got busier and busier as I immersed myself in several community outreach initiatives and soon there were not enough hours in my day, much less time for school, or so I thought.
Finally at the start of August 2014, I saw a Facebook post from Galen University offering a hybrid online Bachelor Degree program in Business Administration. I decided to take the bull by the horn and signed up for classes, which started at the end of August.
As soon as I started, I felt like giving up. My first course was Algebra and it was extremely challenging to say the least. Continuing school after having been out for 10 years took some getting used to. I felt I could not concentrate or focus like I used to and I had no passion for looking for the alphabet in a pool of numbers (that’s what algebra felt like). On top of that, my classes were from 6 pm to 9 pm one night per week and from 9 am to 4 pm on Saturdays. I’m naturally a morning person so having to put my thinking cap on at night was initially very challenging. I finally figured out that a cup of coffee taken just at the start of my class really made a difference. By the end of the second class the proverbial Stella had gotten her groove back. Doing classes online was another aspect that took some adapting to. It’s very different than what I have been accustomed to my whole life, because sometimes I don’t get to meet the teacher or know what they look like. The only medium of interaction is via chat or email and course books are e-books which I loathe. For me there is nothing better than an actual physical book to hold.
I’ll be the first to admit that it is tough to have a full time job and go to school and also manage family life. I don’t have kids but I have other familial obligations and I am part of a very active charity as well as part of the Board of one of San Ignacio’s largest high schools. It sometimes feels like a balancing act and it gets overwhelming at times but this is something I really want to get done so I’m sticking with it. There is no doubt that having an education is important; not only for salary share but also for personal development, exposure, knowledge, practise and empowerment.
My advice to other females who would like to continue their education but are reluctant to do so for whatever reason is simply to just do it. Better to get it done as soon as you can than to regret it later on. Better to make sacrifices now than to wait for a time when life is less complicated, it might never be. Better to get it done now and start living the life you have imagined. It gets hard at times, but read more, focus and commit more, ask for help. The rewards are immeasurable. Vincent Lombardi said, “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
Do it for yourself because you deserve it and you sure are worth it!