<p>wish they were going away to college instead of their kids?</p>
<p>I certainly do. Starting this process with my daughter has brought back many great memories. It was the best four years of my life and I’d do it over in an instant.</p>
<p>Me! Me! </p>
<p>Actually, I’ve been keeping an eye on retirement communities that have colleges nearby.</p>
<p>And, I think someone SMART would take over a few financially troubled colleges and turn them into retirement LEARNING communities for us baby boomers.</p>
<p>I’ve long been planning to run a bed & breakfast after I retire from corporate life, and in the past year I’ve realized it <em>must</em> be in a college town somewhere. ;)</p>
<p>Add me to the list. :)</p>
<p>I certainly do. My D is having so much more fun than I ever did.</p>
<p>I vaguely remember reading an article several years ago where retirement communities are attached to several colleges…somewhere…Arizona?</p>
<p>college, yes for sure. But I’d really like to go to my younger kids’ summer camps & do some archery, fishing, hiking, riding, boating, eating good camp food, and going to bed in a good-tired way every night.</p>
<p>No thanks. I’m happy having “real world” responsibilities.</p>
<p>I was thinking more about teaching at a college rather than attending. (This takes me back to Confidentialia.)</p>
<p>oh, yes, I would love to go back to college. Those were wonderful years! In fact, I have had several dreams in which I went back to college along with one son or the other.</p>
<p>Oh, back to college, definitely! ADad - it’s hypothetical - enjoy! I so want to retire now. With a child going off to college, it seems the mind starts to fantasize about retiring or reinventing one’s career - but who is going to pay for college! I would love to retire in a college community - Boston would be my first choice, Amherst my second, but little condos cost over $1 million in Boston! I would love to teach at college as well.</p>
<p>I’ve never worked so hard or been so stressed as during college days…no thanks to that! Maybe being near a college to audit a class or go to a concert, but no homework or exams, no thanks!</p>
<p>Since I am a university prof, I have the best of both worlds. I am able to work in an academic environment while not having to go thru the trials of the typical undergrad student. Yes, I still work on my research projects, but that is increasingly a collaborative effort which I enjoy greatly because I am able to primarily be a mentor to my colleagues as I get on in years.</p>
<p>I did.</p>
<p>Look to the left.</p>
<p>I want to go to college now! Please, take me out of the corporate world!</p>
<p>Yes, please!</p>
<p>I’m pitching the Lifetime movie: overinvolved mom conks son on the head and, taking advantage of the family resemblance, takes her place in the freshman Class of 2009. Her perfidy is discovered only when, as a rising sophmore, she applies for single sex housing and goes to the wrong side of the dorm.</p>
<p>Carolyn wrote:
"Actually, I’ve been keeping an eye on retirement communities that have colleges nearby.</p>
<p>And, I think someone SMART would take over a few financially troubled colleges and turn them into retirement LEARNING communities for us baby boomers."</p>
<p>Carolyn, my in laws sort of do that now two ways. They live in Saratoga Springs (though have lived there since before they had their kids) and that is where Skidmore College is. Skidmore has this deal where senior citizens can audit courses for some ridiculously SMALL fee. My inlaws have been enrolled in courses there every semester for years. They just are the type of people who value education and enjoy learning. I always tip off my kids’ friends who choose Skidmore that they might find my kids’ grandparents sitting in class with them! Also, my inlaws go to all these Elderhostels all over the country, like twice a year or so. While they are not always on college campuses (sometimes they are), it is like a weeklong “college experience” chockful of courses on some theme. So, there are some things like that out there. </p>
<p>As far as teaching college or being back on campus…I have been an adjunct at five colleges in my state, mostly when my kids were younger. And I have to say there were moments when I would walk onto those campuses and kinda feel like I was back at college a little bit for brief moments. Many say I look young and back then I was, well, YOUNGER, and I may have even looked like I fit in at the time (plus some of these colleges had adult students too). So, teaching at a college is not like going to it but it does put ya back into that whole environment. </p>
<p>But to the original thought…yeah, sometimes when I go to my kids’ summer programs or visit the one that is at college, I think of how much fun it all seems and I wish I could do it but am at least happy to see them being able to do it. I guess my turn is up. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>As a person going back to college this fall, I enjoy being in school but I am grateful to be a grad student going at night* because a few years ago I took a class as a day student before and I would not do it again on a bet. Love the experience but I don’t miss the kids.</p>
<p>I have mixed feelings about the idea of going back to college. Sometimes I think it would be great; I know I’d be a much better and more on-task student than I was at age 20.</p>
<p>OTOH, it’s only been in the past few years that I finally stopped having the periodic nightmare in which I’m lost in a huge school building, it’s finals week, and I’ve just discovered that I’m enrolled in a calculus class and the exam starts in five minutes. [Obviously too late to withdraw.] </p>
<p>No! No! Wake up!!!</p>