Back To School?

Yesterday, I experienced something that may take my life in a very different direction....but first some back-story.

I've grown up learning some sign language as my uncle is deaf, however, my mom doesn't know much ASL and we only saw my uncle a few times a year as we lived in the next state. In high school, I signed up for an ASL class and befriended a deaf girl and my ability exploded....unfortunately, our friendship didn't last longer than that year and I failed my ASL class (sleeping through class doesn't generally encourage warm feelings from your teachers....).

Fast Foward 20 years and I had a semi acceptable ability to communicate, but definitely didn't feel confident or comfortable with my ability. I have been using sign language when I sing for many years and so it was pretty normal for me to sign during worship at church....and then we switched churches. Our new church had a sign language team and I LOVED watching them sign, and apparently they were watching me because when I ran into one of them at the grocery store, she recognized me and invited me to join them. I still felt less than able but I agreed because I knew I could practice the songs ahead of time.

It's been nine months and again my ability and vocabulary have exploded, but my confidence hadn't moved forward even an inch...until yesterday. One of our interpreters told me that I should be in an ITP (interpreter training program). I reminded her that my life is pretty insane with working, running a business, and homeschooling....and that I don't feel like I know what I'm doing. She asked if I had taken any classes so I ran through my sign language background and she told me I should really look at an online program because my lack of education and confidence did not translate to what she saw when I was signing. Talk about an ego boost! I've done a lot of thinking and I really think that doing an online ITP might be exactly where I'm supposed to be investing my efforts right now.

I'm still soaring on the compliment, but I'm also really considering the impact doing one of these programs could have on my future. I love sign language and this would be an amazing way to incorporate that into my everyday life.

Would you go back to school to follow your passions?

image via wikipedia