The Limits of Experience

Where I am

After many years as an office worker, I finally decided what I want to do with my life. I’m 41 and just resumed my education last fall, after an 18-year hiatus followed by one particularly rough summer in my secretarial job. I’m majoring in history at Excelsior College. I haven’t taken any online classes yet — unless you count the one-credit Information Literacy course Excelsior requires everyone to take. (It took me all of about 6 hours to complete.) For now, I’m concentrating on CLEP exams. So far, I’ve passed Humanities, Natural Sciences, Western Civilization I & II, History of the United States I & II, Analyzing and Interpreting Literature, Social Sciences & History, and Introduction to Educational Psychology. Adding those credits to the 30 I started with, I have 70 of the 120 credits I need.

How I got here

Actually, I haven’t exactly decided what to be when I grow up. It would be more accurate to say I reached a place in life where I no longer saw — or needed to see — higher education as a luxury whose economic utility must necessarily justify its expense. I understood that, for me, higher education is as necessary as air or food. My mind craves it. And, okay, my ego wants it pretty badly, too. But it wasn’t until recently that I felt free to stop deferring education until “someday” and to choose my major based solely on what I care about rather than what will be the most lucrative.

That freedom turned out to be the cornerstone of my motivation: I no longer needed to justify the expense of school with a pay increase at the end. I can simply explore a subject that interests me and see where the path leads, even if it means a pay cut, which it might well do. (I’m a well-paid secretary.)

Perhaps equally as important, online education now makes it possible for a disciplined person to earn a college degree in far less time than used to be the case, and without incurring crippling debt. CLEPs and DSSTs have been around for a long time. But other programs like Excelsior College Examinations, not to mention the vast array of online study aids for all these tests, are recent developments. And sometime during those 20 years when I wasn’t looking, online universities and distance learning came of age. They now offer a wide variety of well-regarded degree programs. As someone who has neither the time, nor the patience, nor the extra money for traditional college, these developments are nothing short of miraculous.

This blog is my public journal of an odyssey that will lead me into the next chapter of my life. I’ll chronicle my education, but I’ll also write about other topics that interest me, and which I hope will play significant roles in my future endeavors: history, of course; the English language and literature; and, occasionally, politics. I’ll do my best to make my entries interesting, helpful, and amusing. And, keeping in mind this is a journal, I’ll try to keep it from going completely off the rails into narcissism.

I love dialogue, so I hope to connect with others who share my interests and/or my situation. One of the nicest things about the Web is that it enables the geeks and misfits of this world to find one another and thus feel a little less alone.

The Photography on This Site

Much of the photography featured here is my own. I love how digital cameras are now almost completely idiot-proof, and anyone who can frame a shot can look like a pro. The banner photo and photo above were taken by me on the Greek island of Delos. More photos from my 2006 trips to Greece and London will appear from time to time, and I might even use a few of the shots I took this year in the lovely San Francisco area.

Why “Limits of Experience”?

While brainstorming for a blog title, I did some Google searching using relevant terms. On one of the resulting Web pages, I found the germ of an idea that ties all my disparate purposes into a more or less neat bundle. That page (which includes a short video everyone should see) contained a quote by noted author David McCullough:

Because you were born into this particular era does not mean it has to be the limit of your experience. Move about in time, go places.

Mr. McCullough was, of course, referring to the study of history. But I feel the concept of experience being the only thing that limits us applies to much of life. In order to learn and grow, we have to get out of our comfort zones. We must venture outward and upward, forward, and — yes — backward. Knowing more makes us better people, better parents, better citizens.

I’m expanding the limits of my experience in a big way, and I hope this little blog will inspire and help others to do the same.