In 2022, I was laid off from my job at Chrysler. That was a really bad moment for me.
I was 50 years old, a single father from divorce, and raising three children by myself. One of those children in our home in Loves Park, Illinois was a newborn, barely a year old.
Never before in my life have I felt such panic. What would I do? How was I going to take care of my family? How soon could I get a job that would keep putting food on the table, a roof over our heads and clothes on my kids?
This much I knew for sure in the face of such a reckoning: I had to make a decision. And I had to decide fast.
I needed some new arrows in my quiver. Fresh skill sets. So I decided to further my education and go to college. I enrolled in Rockford Career College (RCC) to learn a trade.
Crazy, right? A 50-year-old going to college to pick up a new profession and redirect his career?
Wrong. The number of fifty-somethings, male and female alike, who pursue higher education is on the rise, according to the latest research. Right now an estimated half a million Americans 50 and older are registered in college, about 3% of the total undergraduate population nationwide.
There, at RCC, among students often half my age, I trained to be an electrical technician. All the while, as I hunkered down to my studies over the 10-month curriculum, I served as a skilled trades union steward for the United Auto Workers in Belvidere, Illinois and raising my two sons and a daughter. I’d never juggled so many roles at once.
By far my biggest challenge was returning to school in my 50s. I’d been out of school more than 30 years. But I knew I needed to better myself.
I was hardly alone in doing what I was doing. As it happens, single-father households are increasing throughout the United States in general and in Illinois in particular, the latest statistics show.
In Illinois, single fathers head tens of thousands of households statewide, an estimated 5% of all families with children (compared to about 20% who are single mothers).
The upshot?
I maintained a 4.0 grade point average at RCC and graduated in 2023 with a diploma as an electrical technician. Then Chrysler hired me back.
I’m 54 now, once again the breadwinner for my family. I’ve kept food on the table, a roof over our heads and clothes on my kids.
But this is about more than me. So let’s take a moment this Father’s Day to honor all the single fathers out there who are overlooked, misunderstood and underappreciated – particularly those who returned to the classroom.
My education has made a big difference in my life. I was able to prove to my friends, my family and myself that you’re never too old to be educated. In fact, I’ve encouraged others to start or return to college and many of my former coworkers have done so.
But the greatest reward of my life as a single father is priceless. It’s knowing that my children are proud of me and what I’ve accomplished.
