I am 51 year old and will be married 10 years this March to a wonderful man.  I am a breast cancer survivor and now a full time college student. 

How did you get to where you are now?

We moved to Missouri March 2009 to enable me to go to school.  I am trying to get into a nursing program here.  I love going to school even though it is definately a big challenge.  After they found the cancer (luckily it was found during a breast reduction so it was at stage 0) I started re evaluating my life and decided I didn't want to spend the rest of my life doing something I was good at but hated and brought me no satisfaction.  My husband is disabled so I know I will need to work for many years to come.  I have wanted to be a nurse since high school but life happened.  My job was eliminated but they kept me on shifting me to fill in here and there.  I never knew what I would do each day at work or if this day would be the one where they said sorry we are letting you go. I took a deep breath and quit.  Packed up our house and we moved and I went back to school.  I think it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

How do you see yourself differently now than you did 10 years ago?

10 years ago I was excited about starting a new life with my new husband, getting our kids off to college and dreaming of retirement and traveling.  Now I take less for granted - the retirement and traveling, With my health issues and husbands illness battles the carefree idea of travel and retirement have been eliminated.  I thought then that just working a job was good enough but now I realize I will have to work for a long time yet and want to but I want to do something that makes me happy and feel good, not just bring home some bacon...

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

In 10 years I see myself still studying to advance my education and maybe my career but mostly just for my love of learning new things.  I see myself working because I love it not just because I have to and I see myself healthier and taking time to enjoy being alive!