Knocking on the door of 50, and I'm going back to school to give myself the ability to earn a good living and do what I really wanted to with my life. I grew up with an acute awareness of the world, and developed a sense of conscience concerning how I, as human being on a planet with finite resources, have a responsibility to care for nature and insure the earth is enhanced rather than abused. To be specific, I grew up on the Raritan Bay, directly South of the New York City skyline, with a father who worked for a paint lead pigment factory, and with a chemical factory in my hometown. To this day I remember how the salt marshes were polluted by the many chemical factories, how there was a ban on shellfishing, how the smells from that factory were pervading, and the how the water would have a rainbow sheen in those marshes near the factory that I played in as a youth. It was hard to escape the truth that there was something wrong going on.
My father died at 57 when I was 17, and many of his co-workers also died young, so this only made my emotions about and passion in this grow. I took classes in community college in Oceanography, but was lost and angry and a bit of an anarchistic after the death of my father. This detracted from my ability to focus, and I never made a career in the environmental or energy fields, even though those were two of my greatest passions.
So much still seems unfair and wrong, but it seems to me there is a growing urgency where energy and the environment, limited resources and the negative results of man's impact are upon the world are concerned. Over the years I have seen a change. Where "thinking green" was once something unique, it now seems much more mainstream. I grew up reading Mother Earth News and ranting about the destruction of the environment and found few peers, but now one cannot turn on the news without hearing a story about an environmental disaster or bill or program for environmentally conscious energy.
I worked in marinas, in asbestos and lead abatement, and construction, and owned my own painting company for the past 16 years, but now have a torn acl in my left knee, numerous problems in my left shoulder, left elbow, and had a broken wrist in '91. I can't monkey up and down a ladder and go at the pace I was for the past 25 years, so I have to find something that I am able to physically endure to earn a living, and the socially conscious and civic works and deeds and thrust I have had as a luixury seems fitting to enter into as a means of making a living.
I would of had already been doing this, but as it is said, "you need money to make money". I simply never had the resources to start a solar/green energy company, or make the changes I needed to to be doing something in those fields. The most I have been able to do was speak out as a citizen. I pushed the mayor's office in Jacksonville and presented them a draft bill for alternate side of the street lawn watering, which they modified and adopted and presented to city council. I also ran a school garden project at my son's school when he was in 5th grade, and taught the class a wide rage of related "green" ideas, including the carbon and water cycles, and how they were a part of it. I recorded this at: http://agreengardengrows.blogspot.com
Other examples of what I have done and worked at can be found at:
http://savestationfive.blogspot.com
http://whiteroofamerica.blogspot.com
http://threesecondsred.blogspot.com
http://busheat.blogspot.com
http://gradeconfiguration.blogspot.com
At near 50, I have a wealth of life experience my younger contemporaries simply can't, and I want to attain a paralegal degree and then an environmental degree, and go into consulting whereby I am hired by private citizens and businesses to do everything from write grants, bids, arrange for contractors, write plans and the like to help them facilitate reducing their energy use and impact upon the environment. The need I see to be filled is one of bringing the resources available to those who would or could use them, and to be a bridge as a consultant and perhaps contractor (hiring subcontractors) to design, build, and retrofit and remodel homes, and businesses, in "going green".
It seems to me the truth is going green and being and living an environmentally conscious lifestyle can only be attained in any large scale when it is economically advantageous for people to do so. This means navigating everything from grants, programs, loans and financing, getting plans and permits and then construction and/or installation of the products and utilities and appliances needed to accomplish this. Most people don't have the knowledge, resources or time to do this. That is where I think I can have an impact and earn a good living in the process.
Whether I work for a consulting company or form my own the end result will be the same, and my education is critical in order to make this a reality.
Because my wife is disabled and I appear to be also to a degree now, our own, my own resources are very limited. I cannot provide for myself or my family while I attend college. I am starting classes and have a Pell grant this Fall of 2010. My plan is to attain the paralegal degree then get the extra credits to have a second degree in environmental or energy, as it appears a field is developing that is tailored exactly to what I want to already do. This also means that I must concentrate my studies into business law.
Without resources this will be very difficult. Our son is 14, and dealing with keeping lights and water on are hard enough as it is, but it is my hope that my needs will be seen and that we will find the resources we need to allow me to attain these degrees and start a new career.
My email is skotdavidwilson@yahoo.com
I am attending Kent Campus at Florida State Community College in Jacksonville.
