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My middle child was dealing with an incurable medical condition and needed a year to get their condition to a manageable place. After obtaining their Associates of Science, they paused their education because we were looking to sell our house and relocate to another state. Since we decided not to leave Texas after all, they are enrolled for the spring semester to finish their Bachelors of Science.

My youngest also took a year between high school and college because I was experiencing life-threatening seizures and could no longer drive or leave the house alone. He helped me continue working; since I was earning a six-figure salary, I paid him out of my earnings. Now that I am no longer working, he got a part-time job and is also starting college in the spring.

Sometimes life gets in the way.

My middle child was dealing with an incurable medical condition and needed a year to get their condition to a manageable place. After obtaining their Associates of Science, they paused their education because we were looking to sell our house and relocate to another state. Since we decided not to leave Texas after all, they are enrolled for the spring semester to finish their Bachelors of Science. My youngest also took a year between high school and college because I was experiencing life-threatening seizures and could no longer drive or leave the house alone. He helped me continue working; since I was earning a six-figure salary, I paid him out of my earnings. Now that I am no longer working, he got a part-time job and is also starting college in the spring.

I understand your desire for OpSec, TheWriterTX, and thus your reason for wanting to mask the sex of your middle child - but then, you could at least be consistent and do the same for your youngest!

/friendly ribbing

I dearly hope that your middle child's condition improves! All the best to you and your family!

Regards,

For me it was working full time the entire time I went to college to get a BS in computer science. Taking 2 or 3 courses per quarter. Plus a lot of my junior college courses didn’t transfer. Plus having epilepsy for most of my teens and twenties with my doctor saying that stress combined with lack of sleep triggered the seizures, thus I took no more than 3 courses. While marrying early to start a family early so the kids would be raised hopefully before the seizures caused severe damage, as the seizures grew in frequency and strength.

Then came the shift in my priorities in my prayers. Then my doctor saying it was a miracle that an MRI detected a microscopic scar tissue on my brain that caused the seizures. Then taking off college for 6 months after the brain surgery and working part time then full time by the time I resumed college, with a year left (taking 2 or 3 courses). Then me finally finishing the BS in CS with a healed brain a few months before I was finally finished being weaned off of the seizure meds that I hated about as much as the seizures. At 28 I was thanking God over and over for being able to think clearly for the first time since I was 14. Not one person criticized me for taking a long time to get a 4 year degree.

27 years later I still thank God just for the blessing of being able to think clearly. And my wife and I are financially set with her being retired and me quasi-retired.