So I already have a college degree. I earned a BA in Humanities from the University of South Florida (Go Bulls). I am not in a career where I use those skills directly. This degree is generally used as a springboard into a Master’s degree, or work in museums or art collections. I do neither of those things. Currently I work as a middle school math and religion teacher for a local parochial school.
Want to know something awesome? I had to go back to college. In the state of Florida one must possess a Teaching Certificate in order to teach, so I applied for one. I was granted a Temporary Certificate and was then told that I needed to complete a certain number of courses about child psychology and teaching strategies in order to make it permanent. So I did, I went back to school and took the classes to make it permanent. And now I am Permanently Certified to teach Humanities K-12.
But I am not teaching that…I am teaching math and religion. So now I have to brush up on my Calculus so that I can take a test to add it to my certification.
So this summer I decided to take a few college classes, yet again. At this point though I decided to take classes at the University of Central Florida. The first day of class I made sure that I was going to be early; the lesson that my high school band director ringing in my ears, “To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late.”
Since I was early, I had some time to kill. I spent it talking with other students. One of whom noticed my wedding ring and posed the innocent question, “Oh so how long have you been married?” The look on his faced changed somewhat when I had to stop to do some quick math. I responded with “Well at the end of this year it will be 8 years.” He then comes back with “Wait how old are you?!”
It turns out that this kid is 10 years younger than I am. I feel like the old man, the crochety old man who does not know how to talk to these kids. Some of them use slang that I have never heard before. Some are suggesting apps for me to use, again that I have never heard of before.
Help me out. Send me some slang and it’s meaning, or some apps to suggest back to these kids in the comments section. Or if you want to have a slang question answered leave it in the comments section. Be sure to check out our Facebook and Twitter. Also see me play FPS games with friends over on twitch.tv/wethecommittee Fridays at 8pm EST.
Dad the Geek 
This is a big fear of mine when I go back to school is being the old guy….
I’m settling into the role nicely.
Nothing like college a second time around to really push your buttons!
I see it much more as an opportunity to learn than these young bucks.
That’s what I’m worried too, when I go for my Masters next year. I will be 29 at the time and will be in classes with 22-23 year olds. All in all though, Congrats on having the strength to go back to school. I wouldn’t dwell on learning new slang/apps right away. you will learn more about them as you hangout with new people