For the betterment of Sarah Williams - Chapter Five

She started her classes all over again. It was a little humbling but she was determined to do her best. She sat at a desk somewhere in the middle of the class. She looked around and noticed that most of the students were a little bit younger than herself. There were some older students but most of them were young. As the teacher gave his lecture, she tried keeping up with the notes. It was harder than she remembered and she was missing some information. When the class was over, a young man noticed that she had some notes missing and offered to help her fill in the missing information. It had been a while since she had done any socializing and she wasn’t sure how to respond. She didn’t want to give the young man the wrong idea in case he had a crush on her, but she also needed to complete her notes. Perhaps the young man was just being nice. After all, he must have noticed the wedding ring she was still wearing. She accepted his offer and they spent some time after class updating Sarah notes. When that was completed, the young man said that a group of them met in the student lounge to study for class and if she wanted to join them she could do that. Sarah thanked the young man and said she would think about joining the study group.

Sarah wasn’t sure. She was more than a little rusty at socializing and they all seemed too young for her to be hanging out with. The truth was that she felt completely out of place. As the oldest person in the group, she felt like she could be their mother. Of course she wasn’t nearly old enough to be any of their mothers but that’s how she felt. She also didn’t want to encourage the young man in the case that he did have a crush on her. It was much too soon for her to be thinking about romance.

Sarah threw herself into her school work. She needed to do something that she felt would move her life forward and getting an education was a step in the right direction. Her classes were hard for her. She often got discouraged and felt like giving up. Her weekly get together with the older woman was always something she looked forward to and it was nice to have someone who would politely listen to her complain.

She was barely keeping her head above water in her classes. Her children had started to get used to Grandma taking care of them. Sarah had to put most of her time into her studies and that left little time to spend on her children. The time she did spend on them she tried to spend wisely, but often the children had different priorities and her time was spent mostly on correcting their behavior. Sarah soon decided that her school work was more important. She could mend her relationship with her children after her schooling was done. So Grandma was left to raise the children while Sarah focused on completing her degree.

Sarah realized that she needed help if she was going to survive the semester. Up to this point she had avoided the study groups that were organized by the younger students, but maybe this was a mistake. It would cost money to hire a tutor and the study groups would be able to help her focus. It would be a little awkward at first but she would get used to it. She would have to get used to it. Her future was too important.

Sarah showed up at the student lounge. She scanned the area. When she saw people she recognized, she approached the group and asked if she could join them. They were studying for an important test that would be taking place the following week. Sarah sat down and started to listen to them discuss the material. She opened her textbook to follow along.