Attending College Again?

Free College - So Why Not?

I will be attending college again. My employer pays for the tuition, so I felt it was a good idea to take advantage of the benefit before the benefit is taken away.

I probably won't be hanging around campus as I intend to take an online course.

I am not entirely sure how I'll do. I am smarter, better trained, and more knowledgeable than I have ever been in my life - but I fear failure.

Will Work Demands Harm My Grades?

My job involves massive use of Excel, Word, the Internet, our Intranet, research, email, a healthy knowledge of tax law regarding investments, various IRC, various internal procedures, phone skills, scheduling software, office politics, using a business and scientific calculator, etc.

My job demands absolute precision - down to the penny while often ranging over millions of dollars a day in other people's money. It demands dealing with pressure from clients and competing companies, and a dedication toward self growth on a daily basis in order to accommodate the never ending changes in industry procedures forced upon it both internally and externally.

It also demands great care in writing, and verbal skills so as to remain compliant with a variety of industry, state, and federal laws - avoiding at all cost securities (SEC) violations, and breaches of ethics.

My job also involves protection of our client's privacy, and financial information, and taking our company's fiduciary responsibilities to the highest level.

I also play a supervisory-consultant role for half a dozen fellow staff members.

Having said all of this I feel raising a teenage daughter is a thousand times more daunting, and more exhausting, of a task than work is.

Daughter - Goddess of Destruction and Chaos

So I'm worried.

Should I take on the college courses?

I already have several degrees, so why am I doing this?

Ambition? Boredom? Curiosity? Maybe some of each.

My main concern is that my daughter is perhaps the most skilled manipulator I have ever encountered in my lifetime. She seems to know when I am vulnerable, and she like any predator, seems to have an incredible set of skills for destroying any sense of harmony and balance which exist in my home.

I'm not sure what it will be like coming home tired at the end of a long day, and then facing my manipulative and destructive teenage daughter. Hopefully, the fact that she will be attending college classes too will drain her of some of her unbounded energy - and keep her away from home long enough for me to study.