Am I Ready to Go Back to School??

I graduated a few years ago now and up until a couple years ago, was still taking classes and keeping my mind in the education game rather well, although without really knowing what the current end game was. Now I am going back, trying one class after a couple years away focusing on being a mom and now working full-time as well.

I originally picked up this class because I could begin to feel my brain starting to stagnate. My thoughts were no longer as clear as they once were, nor did they feel as adult-like as they once had. I hadn't read an educational, well really any full book, in quite some time that I could remember, and I no longer found it easy to hold intelligent conversations with the people I use to enjoy conversing with. Even though I was still able to adequately adult, and no one else had yet to comment on what I was beginning to feel was a rather substantial decline in my active intellect..I couldn't bear it much longer.

So, back I go, at least for this semester (with the last of what remains of my tuition credits from teaching)to see if continuing my education and getting another degree is feasible as well as if it is the solution I am looking for. Perhaps it is, but it is also possible that it is now, at least it should get my brain clicking on more cylinders again...

I'm taking an Introduction to Paralegal Studies course, so not something I am entirely unfamiliar with--working in a legal office as well as having taken some Legal Studies classes in the past...so what improvement I am seeing thus far could either be true improvement, or merely a past familiarization with the topics. It will be a couple weeks until we progress into material that I have yet to have experienced before.

Already my vocabulary is picking up and I seem to be impressing the instructor at the least (although for some reason I no longer take any joy in getting extra credit...it now feels cheapened somehow). This thought alone makes me wonder if it was simply that I wasn't being expected to think at this level in other aspects of my life, and thus my brain was attempting to "autocorrect," to an extent, to the level that was expected of me.

My current supervisor did mention in passing one day that the academic method of thinking was very different from the legal manner of thinking in practice. Perhaps it is merely a difference that my brain has not yet grasped.