Am I the first?

Hi Everyone! Here we go, eh!?

My name is Art Stadnik and I'm from Whitman MA. My college career spans a number of years but I'm getting there! In 1982-1983 I went to what was then the University of Lowell. I was an Environmental Science major with a concentration in fun! During that year I found out I was going to be a Dad so I dropped out, went to work, got married and had three kids. My sons are 28, 22 and 19... ya, I'm old! There great kids! The oldest is taking classes at UMB now too, we haven't actually run into each other yet, but it is kinda funny. My youngest is a sophomore at the University of Illinois and he loves it. My middle son is loving life; still unsure what he wants to do, which is fine because 22 is a great age to really enjoy life. Their Mother and I divorced in 97, and being tied to a job that gave me no fulfillment, I decided to go back to college.

In the Fall of 2001 I enrolled in two classes at Massasoit Community College: English Comp I, and US History. I was leaning towards making history my major because I've always had a passion for it and at the same time I had always loved to write and thought maybe English was an option (even though I had hated it in High School!). I did really well and a funny thing happened. I was invited into their Honors Program. That was funny to me, because knowing my past academic experience, I wasn't Honor Student material! I thought of it as a challenge that would only help me in the long run, so I signed up, and continued to do well (to my surprise). At the end of my second semester another funny thing happened. A flyer advertising an online Shakespeare class was passed out. At this point I was considering an English major over History. I knew if I wanted to pursue English, at some point or other there would be some Shakespeare along the way. Ughhh!!! I hated the idea of it! But, if I was going to narrow my major choice, why not take this class and see? I was intimidated because I knew very little, but I took the course anyways and till this day it is one of the best courses I have ever taken!

I continued with my part-time student status and graduated MCC in 2005 (with a 4.0 to boot!). I was psyched and awarded a scholarship to UMB. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed being a student. However the challenge was very difficult (I had to take four classes minimum), balance that with the midnight shift at the Post Office and my middle son was living with me at the time. Family issues began tolling up and after three and a half semesters I had to walk away from my scholarship to tend to them. It was a sacrifice I had to make; no regrets.

Five years later with the Post Office in trouble it was time to fill my life with that positive energy of being a student again. I took three classes over the summer and I have eight more to go. I love being back and it feels like I never left. I still have a thing for history and this Summer had an article published in The Brockton Enterprise about the local history of my neighborhood. I look forward to learning more about the Mayans, Captain Cook and my classmates as well.

See ya's in the blogs!