I have dreams that will never come true because all I ever start to do doesn't get done and doesn't get noted. I have a disability that causes me to be a forgetful person, almost "ditzy" in a way but I do have ideas about things, I can think and I can participate in group settings but I do get "drowned out" in groups because I don't speak much because I'm scared of sounding dumb or getting attacked over it. I gave up on myself, there is nothing I can do to better my education because I can't afford it and going to college is out of the question because I wouldn't be able to keep up with the rest, I'd have the same problems I had in high school in my non-special ed. classes like health class, driver ed: classroom study, and gym class (I'm not athletic) I didn't fit in with the rest of the people in those classes anyway, I didn't join clubs either. I just wasn't a joiner, I thought I was to dumb to be in any clubs in high school.

So, tell me what you do when you awaken after an 8 year coma, and find your body has been totally destroyed by a drunk driver. You then can throw your dreams and desires that you took to the hospital with you and throw them in the trash. Your loving wife of 23 year has been killed, and your relatives have stepped in and stolen everything you had in life, leaving with no home, no vehicle and nowhere to go, then push you out the back door of the hospital saying your dimissed. An ice cold winter day in upper Iowa, with no jacket, no memory, and do not know who to call, or remember their names, losing the ability to read or write, or doing anything that is beyond the mind of a first grader?
A very grim situation with deal with and the severe grief of your late wife, which is beyond description. Life can sure turn into something that you do not want anymore of in a heartbeat, you want to find the doctor who brought you back from the dead and whip his ass, for not leaving you there. The severe neuropathic phantom limb pain and the migraines, and then the doctors that call you a drug addict because you complain that you are still in great pain. But then, they are standing there on two good legs, both kidneys, and all of their vertabrae intact.
And. You title your post, "Its never too late to realize your dreams"?
I think you are wrong, from a college professor to a stumbling fool who has to learn to read and write all over again. You have to forgive my spelling and sentence structure, for I do not know the proper use of verbs, pronouns, and the other words used to describe the make up of a proper sentence.
Respectfully>Jim

Thank you - that is so encouraging. I graduated college with a B.A. in music 20 years ago. I planned to go to grad school to study ethnomusicology & composition, but got married instead, then I had to get a "real" job so I do office work. I still want to do something with my music, though; I'm writing songs and hope to still go back to school some day!

I wrote my last message just 3 hours ago.

I went to the mailbox, and there was a letter waiting for me from the College of Massage Therapists of Ontario. Slowly, I opened it, expecting it to say I would have to do it again.

I am pleased and proud to tell you that I have PASSED my Provincial Practical OSCE exams!!!

It's NEVER too late!!!

I am 45 years old, and my birthday is coming soon. On July 1 I will turn 46. I've known since I was 18 that I wanted to become a Registered Massage Therapist in Ontario, Canada. At 18 though, there were only 2 schools in Ontario, and it wouldn't have mattered because the cost of going to school was too great for me at that age. I went on to work in the High Tech industry for the next 23 years. I enjoyed it, and I was good at my job, and the companies I worked for used to send me all over Canada visiting customers, going on training, and working computer shows. I had a great time and I loved travelling, but the High Tech industry fluctuates so very much, they are either doing great and you can get hired anywhere, or they're doing poorly and you get laid off. I was laid off in high tech 5 times. When I was 41, I decided to go back to school, and do the one thing I always wanted to do, get my RMT regsistration. Two years later, I was finished school, but while I was the oldest in the class there were several people closer to my age, within about 5 years. My wife and I struggled financially and we didn't have the $1,000 that I needed to take the provincial exams, and I had to go back to High Tech (last job working for Dell).

Then on Christmas Eve morning of 2007, I lost my wife, she was killed in a car accident on her way to work. It's taken me a long time to try to get back on my feet, but I went back to school for a couple refresher courses, took my provincial practical OSCE exams just a week ago, and am waiting to hear back. I don't feel like I did very well on them though, and it won't surprise me if I didn't pass, but should that be the case, I won't give up. My wife told me that I was "gifted" at massage therapy, and I believe I am. She wanted me to get my registration. I'm sortof doing it for her, and I want to make her proud of me as she looks down from the heavens, I need to do this for myself.

It's never too late, like Julie says. If you want something truly bad enough, you can find a way. Just never, never give up. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again". And this little poem, a wallmount that I got my wife one time when she was going back to school, means so much to me now:

Believe in Yourself

Believe in Yourself -
in the power you have to control your own life, day by day...

Belive in the strength
that you have deep inside, and your faith will help show you the way..

Believe in tomorrow
and what it will bring - let a hopeful heart carry you through --

For things will work out
if you trust and believe. There's no limit to what you can do!

(Author: Larry S. Chengges)

I was diagnosed 8 months ago with lung cancer and have often commented that, in some ways, it has been a real gift. It immediately shifted my priorities and has given me the time to do something that has been my passion since I was a child. I do volunteer work for the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro California. We rehabilitate and return to the ocean all of the sick and injured seals and sea iions that get stranded on the beaches in LA county. There is no where else I feel so much like my "authentic self" and million miles away from cancer. Thanks for your story Julie. Even when the clock is ticking on a life threatening disease, I agree, it is NEVER TOO LATE!

Sensitive, I say Go For It! When you start, you will be plesantly suprised to find that there will be many other's attending school who are well into their forties and fifties. Ocasionally, you'll run into somone in the sixties which illustates Julie's point very well.

Your first step is to fill out the FAFSA at www.fafsa.ed.gov to see what state and federal financial aid you qualify for. Then apply to some schools. You wont have to worry about SAT or ACT scores because you have been out of school for more than four years. See what the schools have to offer financially and in terms of what you want to study. It's supriseingly easy!

I only took 5 years off between HS and college, and believe it or not I had the same anxieties you seem to have. At 23 I worried that I would be sitting in class in a sea of 18 and 19 year olds, but I was quickly relived to find great diversity of the student body. Also, don't worry that you've been out to long and you "ain't got it" anymore. You life experience should serve you very well.

Good Luck

Inspiring. I'm to pursuing my dreams of New life story/life coach. My mission is to inspire women in the transitional years to follow their dreams and make positive changes in their lives.
mary@transitionaldreams.com

When I was young I had to give up my dream of law school (because *its no use training Girls to be anything -- they just get pregnant and quit!*) and motorsport journalism (because it was bad luck for a Girl to even be IN the pitlane, and Girls know nothing about cars, etc.) I went on to become a good legal secretary (23 years of it now). But in 2000 I had the chance to join a building racing website (at the age of 50) and because the 24 Hours of Le Mans sets its media up by quota and nobody applied from Canada, to cover the most famous international road race in the world. I had almost 10 years of a fascinating second career of travel and excitement, learning to know a panoply of racing drivers and their teams, handlers and crews, and above all learning to cope with every possible kind of emergency including a paranoid schizophrenic employee who committed suicide after nearly destroying everything we had built up. It is never going to send me to the Hall of Fame, but it has been wonderful fun and is a dream realized at an age when most people believe they are too old. (This is definitely a job for fit young people with someone else to pay their bills while they get established). Just remember that line from the third Indiana Jones movie, *Only with the leap from the Lions Head will he Prevail.* Indy had to step out into what looked like thin air to reach the final destination, and when he did, there was a solid bridge beneath his feet that he could not see unless he looked just exactly where it was.

P.S. I recommend the movie *Mama Mia* for anyone who believes that only The Young can be Dancing Queens. There is a difference between being perfect and having fun!

I'm very happy for your brother. I graduated high school that same year but set aside college for work and then family. Now I'm simply terrified to jump in and be called an affectionate "old lady" in the classroom. I'm still young at heart but don't know how to start. Did your brother honestly admit what it was that drove him to get that degree?
I'm always moved to tears at processional marches the way I am at weddings. Both take a giant leap of faith in order to be a success!