I am officially a student again! Once again pursuing online education, I was accepted into a doctoral program at California Institute of Integral Studies. Unlike my master’s program, which was done completely online, this program includes a residential component – one week at the beginning of each semester.

Attending this intensive was, well – INTENSE! First, I had to prepare my husband to take care of the home front for the week. Then, I had to go to school without pajamas on! It is a different experience to be face-to-face with people, and I can already tell a few short days in that our online relationships will not have to go through the same steep ‘getting to know you’ curve that my previous cohort went through. We are already linked in an intricate web of commonalities and differences. I look forward to the exploration of topics with my colleagues.

I never expected myself to be a life-time student, and I guess I don’t fill the definition completely as I had 13 years off between bachelor’s and master’s and two years off between master’s and doctoral. Yet, I had such a positive experience with my AIU Master’s degree that I couldn’t wait to dive back in again. For now, though, I need to go write that first paper.