Description
I am thirty three years old and recently decided to advance my career opportunities by taking online college courses. At that time I never thought that I would find myself in the roles of a mom to a newborn baby boy, a wife of an active duty service member, and a student. At first, I found it most discouraging trying to find the time to balance college classes with all of the activities in my daily life, as being married to a soldier of the United States Army means being a single mother, currently living in a foreign country, at times of deployment. Several years have passed since I graduated high school and educational advancement was not my first priority. At that time, I had decided to join the United States Armed Forces and serve my country while stationed in Europe. Although I do not regret that decision, I do however regret not attending college directly after high school and having the option to join the service as a commissioned officer. I now decided that going back to school to obtain my Bachelor’s degree in Human Recourses Management at Penn Foster College would offer many career opportunities and set an example for my son. Taking online courses has proven to be more difficult than I thought. With my 9 week old son needing my attention most of the day, my husband working extended hours and housework piling up, I do not have the luxury to always have a set schedule allowing me to attend traditional college classes on a campus and in class rooms. My husband tries to be as supportive as he possibly can, while trying to take as much housework as he can off my hands and wakes up to feed the baby at night during the weekends. During the week however, I would like him to come home to a neat and clean house with a cooked meal waiting for him as he walks thru through the front door of our home, so he can fully relax and leave the daily struggles of a leader of 20 plus soldiers behind him for the rest of his night. His job as a platoon sergeant is very labor intensive and draining at times, and coming home to a neat and stress free environment is the least I can do to contribute to ensure he can fully unwind. With his daily schedule and my full attention going to my son these days and all my daily necessary household activities, it takes take away from my studies and exam time which I am forced to conduct during the evening hours, which in turn takes quality family time away from my husband and son. When I try to concentrate on my studies I find myself easily drifting off in thoughts of sitting in the living room with my husband and son watching TV or having a conversation about anything but school. This can be very distracting seeing that my attention span is limited as it is. Even with all the activities mentioned previously, I still try to squeeze in time to spend with friends and family as much and as regularly as possible. At times I am unsure of where I am going to find the energy for all of my duties. Exhaustion, doesn’t describe what I feel! Support, a great deal of encouragement and a well-organized plan are needed to ensure that I keep my goal in sight and help get thru this difficult but rewarding time.

Process
I realized I needed a better strategy and routine to accomplish my distance learning goals, when I received my study material for my first course and sat down at my desk to start my studies and my son wasn’t sticking to his regular sleep routine and wouldn’t stop crying for attention. Generally, I am a well-organized person in my everyday life. Every aspect of my life requires organization and attention. To date, I have managed to be a mother to my darling son, a wife to my partner, a leader and manager in my previous jobs, loyal to my friends, attentive to my family, and a dedicated housekeeper at home. I am positive I can effectively add being a dedicated and attentive student to that routine! I do however need to create a plan to make this work, as plans and routines assist me at being more efficient. I plan to create a list of all the things I require to accomplish my goals. Once I have created that list, I will work on putting my ideas into action. I will then share my list with my husband and discuss not only the importance of my education, but also some support I will require from him to assist me in accomplishing my goals. In that discussion I will mention that during the week days, I will have to study in the evenings after he comes home from work. As there are many distractions around me on these days, they will prove to be most difficult. On the weekends I will study in the early morning hours, as he will be home and able to assist in tending to our son. I will argue that although he works long hours and just wants to unwind when he returns home, I need him to take some of the daily household tasks of my hands in order for me to concentrate more on my studies. He has already agreed to assist with tending to our son on weekends and after he returns from work and I’m positive he will be happy to take care of some of the household chores on his days off as well, to ensure I get the time I need for my studies. I will explain that although studying several days per week is of the up most importance to me, I will ensure to take time away from my college classes to spend time together with him, our son, friends and family. Now, I realize that studying at home where distractions are all around me and allowing me to drift in thoughts will not provide an adequate study area for me and decided to make use of the local library as my new place to study. As they have everything I need to complete my studies efficiently from easily accessible books to computers and printers, I find it to be the most efficient place to conduct my studies. Now that I have created my plan, put it into action and have the support I need, the feeling of being overwhelmed has subsided. Now, I have more time to focus on my studies and can work toward my goal of a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources Management!