A Next Step for Me

I've been wanting to go back to school for a while now, looking toward a Masters in Theology.  So I'm starting with some non-credit courses this spring. . . Which I can change to for-credit if I decide to.  They aren't toward an MA, but instead toward a certificate.  I really didn't like school, was more than happy to be done, and almost didn't go to college.  People would see my grades and think I enjoyed school, but I did not like the competitive atmosphere and found that so much of what we were required to learn was pointless and useless.  Looking back I could have very easily skipped high school and gone right to college, with perhaps math and writing skills being the only things I would have needed from high school.  I probably could have done all of that with one year of concentrated study.  I wanted to be challenged, but wasn't.  There was a school for girls I wanted to attend, but as it was a boarding school my parents wouldn't let me go.  As a freshman I auditioned to our state's school for the arts (music) and was accepted, but again was not allowed to go.  Though that was probably for the best.  A gymnastics coach invited me to train with him in TX with his high school team.  There were opportunities, but my parents kept me close to home.  As a junior in HS I applied for, and was accepted to, the summer scientific seminar at the US Air Force Academy but couldn't go.  Now, I look toward furthering my education, doing something about which I have some passion.  Please keep me in your prayers as I venture back out into the academic world.  I am finding it to be a somewhat daunting step.