I Chose Family First and am Going to College Later in Life

There is a “not-so-quiet” pressure in our culture to have life figured out by eighteen, to know your path by graduation, and to march straight into college as if it’s the only way to build a future. I am here to remind you that not every calling follows a traditional clock. Some of us are wired to build our families first, pour into our children, plant deep roots, and grow the kind of home that requires time, energy, sacrifice, and love. And there is nothing small or secondary about that.

Choosing family first does not mean you chose ambition last. It simply means you understood what your calling was the most in that season.

The World Hurries. God Does Not.

Our culture loves speed. It loves achievement. It loves checking boxes. But God works in rhythms, not rushes. Scripture shows us again and again that God’s timing rarely matches human deadlines.

“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Sometimes your season is diapers, dinners, homework, and wiped tears. Sometimes your season is building character in little hearts and building resilience in your own. And sometimes the most holy work you can do is right inside the four walls of your home.

Family Is Real Education

“Uneducated” used to be a word we used to politely attack illiteracy in the United States. Now it’s used as an insult to sling when people don’t understand YOUR politics.

People underestimate the kind of wisdom that grows in a home filled with children. There is no textbook that can teach you patience the way a toddler can. No lecture that prepares you for the courage it takes to advocate for your kids or others. No college seminar that rivals the real-world leadership you learn while balancing bills, schedules, health scares, school meetings, and your own exhausted heart. Wisdom comes from all of those things as you understand how the world works beyond a text book, lecture, or a lesson had within 4 walls of a classroom.

Family teaches you to think, adapt, plan, communicate, negotiate, and love beyond your own limits. That is an education too. A powerful one. My family has given me an education in life that no book could ever compete with.

When the time comes to go to college later in life, you do not walk in naïve. You walk in with grit. You walk in with purpose. You walk in having survived far more than midterms.

Later Does Not Mean Less

There is a lie that whispers, “If you do not do it early, it no longer counts.” But life does not shrink because you started something later. In many ways, it expands. Going to college later in life means you are going with clarity. You are not going because someone pressured you or because that is what your high school guidance teacher told you to. You are going because God stirred something in you that refused to quiet down.

And that kind of motivation cannot be manufactured at eighteen.

There is a confidence that comes from age. There is a steadiness that comes from parenting. There is a wisdom that comes from loss, heartbreak, survival, and resilience. All of that becomes fuel for your future, not barriers against it.

Maybe people around you went straight to college. Maybe their path looked neat and Pinterest-perfect. But your path? Your path is covered in fingerprints from the children you raised, the meals you cooked, the prayers you whispered at 2 AM, and the sacrifices no one else saw.

And God does not waste any of it.

Every year I spent prioritizing my family built a foundation of love and strength. And now, when I walk into a classroom or log into an online program, I carry all that strength with me. I have survived the loss of my father. I have survived giving birth to a child who was sent straight to the NICU. I have survived 23 hellos and goodbyes with foster children. I held my child as his best friend exited this earth. Midterms and Papers have nothing on any of that!

There Is Boldness in Beginning Again

It takes courage to raise a family. It takes courage to dream again in adulthood. And it takes courage to go back to school when the world tells you that you should be “established” by now.

Maybe I am showing my children(and all listening to my story) that learning never stops which is a worth while lesson in itself. It is never too late to grow, to rise, or to chase something God placed in your heart.

My calling by God does not expire and I firmly believe the best time is when God says Go.

There is no such thing as “too late” in the Kingdom of God. Moses was eighty when he stepped into leadership. Sarah was ninety when she held a promise in her arms. Age has never intimidated God.

So whether you are thirty-five or forty-five or older, your calling is still alive, and your future is still wide open.

When God says it is your time, it is your time.

And when you choose your family first and college later, you are not choosing one over the other. You are choosing obedience in each season.

You are choosing the right thing at the right time.

And that is something to be proud of. 🙂