Follow up on the post below "Looking for those in their 40s returning to school" or someth

Forgive me please, it has been a long day and while I looked at the old post to remember the title, as soon as I opened the dialog box to start a new thread, I forgot it!!  That is what typing for 15 hours will do for you, plus knowing that I only made $102.00 in that 15 hours!

Anyway, I wanted to share what progress I have made and trust me, for me this is HUGE!  I have emailed the program director at the local technical college asking her advice about a 46 YO (ME) entering into the dental hygiene program.  There just are not many choices in my area, they range, literally from nursing (both LPN and RN), medical assistant (pay stinks), dental hygienist, dental assistant, x-ray tech, surgical tech, computers (ready to throw this 1 out of the window), teaching and accounting.  Honestly, that is it!  After debating back and forth between surgical tech, x-ray tech, registered nurse and dental hygienist, I have set my sights on dental hygienist for several reasons.  I am not particularly interested in dealing with patients as a nurse or x-ray tech would have to.  I really considered a surgical tech because I have always been facinated with surgery (even had the opportunity to "assistant" a surgeon that I worked for years ago when we were medical secretaries, fill-in "nurses" and "oh, can you keep the kid if the wife drops it by for about 2 hours while you are working today" all rolled into 1) but sadly the pay for a surg tech in my area is not too much above what I am making now.  Dental hygiene, however, is apparently a very lucrative field.  After researching I see that they generally make around $60,000 a year and mostly work part-time, 3-4 days a week.  THAT I can handle, lol. 

So, with all of this in mind, I, very nervously, sent the email off to the program director explaining to her my situation, asking her about the program and her opinion on whether she thinks that a 46 Y/O can make it through the program.   As nervous as I was in sending the email, you would have thought that I was actually attending my first class, lol. 

Anyway, that is my update.  Thanks so much for everyone that answered the thread below and for the encouragement.  Also, I want to wish everyone who is currently in school, thinking about going back to school or has finished school, my best wishes !  Never when I started out as a MT over 23 years ago would I think that I would be contemplating returning to school but we do what we have to. 

Again, good luck to everyone and I will let you know if I hear back from the program director.  Sorry this is so long but thanks for listening!!