Juggling home, school and life
How single parents make it as college students
Samantha J. Brandel
Issue date: 2/1/10 Section: Opinion
Like many women in the world, I decided to become a mother after high school. Rather than going on to college, I stayed home and started a family. I was 19 years old.
This is a choice I have always celebrated, and I am tremendously proud of my children and my accomplishments as a parent. In my life, there has been no feeling greater than seeing my children grow, learn and become unique individuals.
Just as other parents do, I display their drawings on the refrigerator, I brag to my friends and family about their undertakings, I carry their photos on my keychain. It has been the most rewarding, significant journey I have ever embarked on.
However, when I suddenly became a single mother with three children and no career, I had no idea how hard life could get. I struggled through with a series of low paying jobs, and I didn't always have a car.
I would often have to walk to and from my midnight shift job, a four-mile round-trip, while my children slept. I would come home, get them ready for school then attend to my household duties. I felt lucky to get five hours of sleep a day.
Additionally, the strain of rent, finding reliable babysitters, utility and food bills, laundry and other household responsibilities, often made me feel derisory, lonely and insecure. I felt I was going nowhere fast, and the drive was imposed on my children.
After about a year and a half of uncertainty and hard work, I knew I had to make a fundamentally life-altering decision.
One day as I was headed to yet another low paying job, I drove past Lake Land College and the answer was clear and obvious. Two-weeks before the start of the semester, I put in my notice at work, and began my new journey as a college student and single mother.
This is a choice I have always celebrated, and I am tremendously proud of my children and my accomplishments as a parent. In my life, there has been no feeling greater than seeing my children grow, learn and become unique individuals.
Just as other parents do, I display their drawings on the refrigerator, I brag to my friends and family about their undertakings, I carry their photos on my keychain. It has been the most rewarding, significant journey I have ever embarked on.
However, when I suddenly became a single mother with three children and no career, I had no idea how hard life could get. I struggled through with a series of low paying jobs, and I didn't always have a car.
I would often have to walk to and from my midnight shift job, a four-mile round-trip, while my children slept. I would come home, get them ready for school then attend to my household duties. I felt lucky to get five hours of sleep a day.
Additionally, the strain of rent, finding reliable babysitters, utility and food bills, laundry and other household responsibilities, often made me feel derisory, lonely and insecure. I felt I was going nowhere fast, and the drive was imposed on my children.
After about a year and a half of uncertainty and hard work, I knew I had to make a fundamentally life-altering decision.
One day as I was headed to yet another low paying job, I drove past Lake Land College and the answer was clear and obvious. Two-weeks before the start of the semester, I put in my notice at work, and began my new journey as a college student and single mother.
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