Tennessee Reconnect Spotlight will feature a first-person story each week...

I was terribly ill-equipped to succeed in college after first graduating high school. I did intend to one day obtain a degree but felt that I lacked the discipline fresh out of school and needed some time to mature before making such a commitment. I wanted some “me time”, time to find out who I was and what I really wanted, so, I joined the Marine Corps. 

They say life is what happens while we’re busy making plans. Before I had a chance to go back to school as I originally planned, I was married and the father of three kids.  After serving my time “maturing” in the Marines, I began working as a firefighter and became certified as a Paramedic. I loved the job and wanted to do more in the medical field, but I had a family to provide for. I simply could not afford to go to school, it was a matter of both time and money. Thirty years goes by faster than you think.

Fast forward: The kids have grown and gone away to college, the military, started their own families. I’m working as a Flight Paramedic with Erlanger’s Life Force Air Medical Services and work with some of the most confident, capable, and brightest nurses in the nation, many of them graduates of Chattanooga State’s Nursing Program. I consider myself fortunate to work alongside them and have long wanted to go back to school and get my nursing degree, but the money for tuition, right? Wrong.

My wife told me about the Tennessee Reconnect Program and, being a college graduate herself and a tremendous advocate for continuing education, guided me to the application. I was elated to see that I qualified and eager to begin attending classes!  If only I could manage to complete the coursework, my nursing degree was within arm’s reach! 

I can’t say enough good things about all of Chattanooga State’s faculty and staff who’ve helped me along the way. Going back to school is challenging, but in a positive way!  If I can do it, you can too!