Age doesn't matter

By all appearances, Amy Mossman was living a very satisfying life.

She liked her steady, full-time job as a medical receptionist. Her two children were successful – a daughter at UW-Milwaukee, a son in high school. She held a BA degree in Art from UW-Oshkosh, an educational journey that included studies at UW-Madison.

Yet something in Amy Mossman’s life was missing.

She knew, as she explained, that she “wanted to see the world,’’ and her role as a receptionist at the MercyElkhorn Medical Center was not the avenue to get there. “My reception work really is great, but it is not my life’s goal,’’ she said.

Even worse, there was something stale about her daily regimen. The challenges she wanted were missing.

So, instead of building a resume of regrets, Mossman dived into a new lifestyle built on a resume of possibilities. In her late 40s, she decided to go back to school.

That’s why you find Mossman at the Blackhawk Technical College central campus every Tuesday and Thursday from morning to night taking classes in math, psychology, sociology and physics worth 13 credits, and building the foundation toward what she hopes is a successful petition into Blackhawk’s Diagnostic Medical Sonography and Vascular program.

“It has gotten me out of a stagnant way of being,’’ Mossman said one recent Thursday as she took a late-morning break between classes.

The re-education of Amy Mossman actually began at the Elkhorn campus of Gateway Technical College, where she took required General Education courses. She eventually landed at Blackhawk because it has the program she wanted that she hopes will make her a world-wide traveling ultrasound technician.

She envisions the day that she is a “global locum,’’ or a traveling professional who temporarily fills an ultrasound technician position wherever needed for as short as a few weeks to as long as a few years.

“This is such an up-and-coming technology,’’ she said of the future of sonography. “All the stuff they are finding with ultrasound technology is amazing.

“They’re healing bones, healing wounds. It’s not an invasive procedure. I think there is a good future in health care and research in this field.”

Mossman admitted there was some trepidation when she rearranged her life’s course. Part of it was the simple factor of becoming a full-time student at 49. However, three months into this adventure, she wonders why she ever had doubts.

“I thought there was a chance I would feel out of place,’’ she recalled. “But I felt so welcomed from the first day I got here. I feel I am part of the Blackhawk community.

“At Blackhawk, you are encouraged to succeed. I realized early on that age doesn’t matter here if you have the desire to succeed, and Blackhawk has made that very apparent to me.

“I noticed in my first class just how much diversity there was in the classroom and I was so impressed with how I was accepted. Age simply didn’t matter.’’

 Mossman understands that she has not taken the easiest of roads. She figures that upon successful petitioning in January, she will have two years of study followed by one to two more years of working in the field before she can set off on her travels.

“I’m antsy to get out and see the world,’’ she said. “This is my chance.’’