Writing Lesson #1: Sometimes You Have to Go Back to School

I'll admit it. I was never one of those kids who loved school. Actually, I hated it. Had it not been for my father's insistence that I go to college (by the way, thanks, Dad), I would have happily graduated from high school and have never opened up a textbook again.

But here I am, thirty-eight years old and going back to school. Well, kind of. You see I started an SEO/Marketing class yesterday. It's an online class put on for free by a great company called GNC Web Creations. These kind people offer classes on how to properly use SEO (search engine optimization) techniques along with a marketing class.

Because I write quite a bit of web content, I decided it was important to master SEO techniques. Also, having been out of the "official" workforce for about eight years, it seemed necessary for me to gain some real skills besides being able to turn the computer on and open email.

I would like to say I'm excited about this SEO class, but I'm actually pretty nervous. I shouldn't be. It's not like they're going to grade us...I don't think. No, my nerves have more to do with the whole learning process. You know, the "getting it" part of class.

See I've been having flashbacks to when I was a junior in high school and had to take a computer programming class. Our assignment was to write a program on our Macs which would create a moving stick figure (hey, this was the 80s). While all the other kids created these nifty little moving people, I sat for hours in front of my computer screen, rewriting code and praying my stick figure would just appear, never mind move.

Sadly, my stick figure never materialized. Besides a D for a grade, I ended up with a pile of mismatched lines that just sat on the screen while my fellow classmates all managed to create their moving stick figures. Some even did tricks!

You can now understand why I'm slightly nervous about this class. I feel like I did twenty something years ago (except less bitter). I'm worried that my classmates will be just like the kids in my high school computer class. They'll excitedly master SEO techniques while I'll be left wondering what the heck is going on.

Of course, in saying all of this, I guess I'm failing to recognize that I'm a different person than I was in 1985. For one, I like to think I'm smarter than I was back then. And two (and more importantly), I'm definitely more self confident and driven to succeed.

Come to think of it, those stick figure-making classmates of mine really have nothing on the adult me.

Well except for the fact that I still can't make stick figures.