There are days when my mouth becomes completely disconnected from my brain. I’m finding as I get older that these little disconnects happen much more frequently. Today was a perfect example. I had an appointment for lab work. As I’m getting settled into the chair a gentleman walks in, introduces himself and says “I’m a student” then points to his badge that does indeed say “student”. He continues by announcing, “I’m the oldest student ever.” Well, I had to disagree with him. I’ve seen plenty of people attending school at an older age – the “non-traditional” students. I try to express this and out from my mouth pops, “oh, I don’t think so…” (this is where my brain must have been on break) “…my step-mom just got her RN.”

My step-mom is an RN and while she was a “non-traditional” student she didn’t “just” graduate from nursing school. My brain caught up with my mouth and all sorts of alerts went off to try and shut down my vocal cords, but my vocal cords have a mean posse of thugs that prevented those signals from reaching them. The lab tech student starts asking questions and my brain tries to come up with clever ways to respond so that I’m not exactly lying anymore. All of this I blame on my brain for unexpectedly leaving me alone around people. I try not to use the word “was” or any other words that would indicate past tense when I respond “she’s in home health care and specializes in oncology.” I pat myself on the back for not saying “specialized”. Finally, I get tripped up when the actual lab tech ask “how long ago did she graduate?” My brain finally busts through and was able to wrangle some control back while I stammer out “well, it seems just like yesterday to me, but I’m guessing it was longer.” The vocal cords disconnect the brain a moment to get in some parting words “but still she was in her mid to late 40’s!”

The truth Mr. Lab Tech student wherever you are is that she was in her late 30’s when she started working towards her RN and that was some 20 years ago. There, I said it! The truth is out!