Education ?

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Apart from a brief,unsuccessful try at a correspondence course in the early days of getting a psychiatric dx I stopped studying when I was first admitted to hospital. I've never been physically into a building to study since then.
Social anxiety and memories of being bullied by my peers were the main reasons. Also there was the fear of failure. Let's just say I had a feeling there was something wrong, but it wasn't till years later that i worked out I had a learning difficulty. Of course I've never been diagnosed as such,because in the 60s and 70s if you were reasonably intelligent such things were very rarely considered.

I got my BS, but it took 8 years. Helping take care of my dying grandmother, depressions, abusive relationship, single motherhood, another HORRIBLE relationship, related court case, minor mental breakdown. UGH (that thing about Aspies not being able to recognize nasty people - so very true in my case). Oh, and having 5 chosen majors along the way.

It was the 70's and early 80's so school was cheap and aid was easy to obtain. Still it was a struggle for lots of reasons. For me it was worth it in the end since it opened doors to jobs that might not have been readily available to a woman otherwise.

I went back a few years ago and tried to get an online MS in library science. Couldn't do it for a variety of reasons. One I should have seen coming was that the school strongly leaned on group projects, partly to counteract the bias against online degrees. While I'm not the best at deciphering peoples messages/wants/needs in person, it was horrifying trying to do it only by computer, especially with major age and other differences.

Self education is a whole other thing - books, going to museums and other places to learn. I love it. Give me information and I'm a sponge.

I took 8 years to get my BA---but without all the stuff that happened to the person above me, fortunately.

I just took my time. I worked full-time at the time I was going to school.

Reading all that, it seems worse than it was in real life, where I mostly just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I loved the classes (most of them anyway). And being able to work (part time work/study) in a university map library, the greenhouses and the university fruit experiment station was all fascinating. I loved the challenge, the ideas, so much that when I finally graduated I'd racked up 152 credits. Insane, but I don't regret a one. Same with the attempted MS. I squirreled away a lot of interesting info and some new skills.

I had a "double major," plus a "minor." I accumulated about 140 credits. I graduated at age 45, in 2006.

As a second job, I work in a college/university library.

I wish I had a green thumb like the person above me.