Your Jason Clarkson

Your advisor at college had told you that despite the nationwide teacher shortage, it might be hard for you to get a teaching contract. The reason was simple: most brand-new teachers were not 49-year-old men.

Your life didn't go the way you had always envisioned. As opposed to your two sisters, who left home and had careers and families, you had stayed to take care of your mother and aunt.

Your mother had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic when you were young. And your aunt, well, she was about the most needy person you had ever known. With them as your crosses to bear, your relationships never really went anywhere.

First your aunt and finally your mother passed away right before the Covid lockdown. While trapped alone in your childhood home, your sisters convinced you that you weren't too old for college. You started online during the pandemic, and off you went.

So here you were at 49 years old, a six-foot, 220-pound older man. Your looks had never been what let you down with women. Your health, other than an enlarged prostate and a joint that creaked when the weather changed, was good.

Nodding to yourself, you head back to bed because you have a busy day tomorrow.