Earlier this year a story was published about a 99-year-old woman who, against all kinds of odds, went back to school to obtain her associate degree in social sciences. Doreetha Daniels made it through strokes, hearing and sight issues and the loss of her driver’s license to be able to become the oldest graduate of College of the Canyons in California. At 99-years-old, she’d done this after also overcoming the Great Depression, WWII, the Civil Rights movement, and the rest of history which happened as whatever else was going on in her life was also happening. As only someone who’s had to live by her own personal mantra, when asked her advice for others, Ms. Daniels offered words of wisdom to others simply saying, “Don’t give up.”

Just this week I was having a conversation with a friend about school. We were talking about how far she’d come and how close to the finish line she was, as obvious by the pressing thought of her taking a break being so pronounced. She’d done so much and accomplished so much that it was only natural, this close to the finish line, to want to plop down on the bench for a spell. Sometimes we have to do that. Some other times we have to just keep on pressing. There are only two people who can make the final call of which way to go…God and you. Anywho, after talking to my friend I thought about myself. At age 43, and primed for some new, exciting career and civic experiences, I questioned if I too, had plopped down on the bench for a spell, not knowing my time there had long ago expired. I’ve had many amazing jobs in life, and many opportunities for unconventional, continued learning since college, but I have a feeling, thanks to my dear friend, that the time is now for more. Like Ms. Daniels, I think it’s about time for me to get back in the learning game. I don’t know how that looks. I don’t know where that will be. I don’t know if it will be in a class, in front of a computer, some simple research, obtaining certifications, some seminars, webinars, conferences or retreats, studying a mentor or intense shadowing. I definitely don’t know how I’ll do it, but I do know that there are new passions within me ready to be put into certified action. I lied. They’re actually not new. They’ve been simmering on low for quite a while. I’ve just been on the bench sleeping, and sleeping on them. It’s time for them to wake up and make me some money, and more importantly some impact in the world around me.

When I was growing up I had a larger than most head. (Take a look at any of my fabulous photos and you can see that the same remains.) When children would say I had a “big head” I would reply with my hand on my made-up hip that, “It was because I had a big brain so I could learn a lot” #Boom Don’t ask me how I came up with that reply to prove my point to them, but it worked. I would shut that adolescent banter down like nobody’s business. Now, with hands on my real hips, it’s time to put that little quip into action, expanding the knowledge in my brain and proving a point to no one other than Angela Michele Scott Moore (until I get a new last name one day). It’s never too late to learn.

@AngelaMMoore316