Mel Tyler sat in rush-hour traffic on U.S. 36, trying to make her way to Metropolitan State College of Denver. She took a deep breath as she realized she would not make it to her 8:30 a.m. Personality and Adjustments class on time April 9.

"I was 20 minutes late," said Tyler, a junior psychology major.

Luckily, her professor didn't mind.

Tyler, along with the majority of Metro State students, commutes to the central Denver campus daily to attend classes. She also works part time as the afternoon receptionist at the on-campus Auraria Early Learning Center.

As a married 26-year-old, she considers herself to be an atypical student.

"In one of my business classes, the professor had us line up according to age," she said. "There was a long line of people on one side of me, but no one on the other side."

When Tyler first graduated high school, she attended Idaho State University for a semester, intending to study pharmacy.

"My dad is a pharmacist and I thought that was what I wanted to do," Tyler said. "After a couple of weeks, I realized it wasn't for me."

Tyler, of Broomfield,moved to the Denver area and entered the workforce for six years, employed at Qwest and later at Westwood College. Tyler said it took her that long to decide she wanted to study psychology.

"Working at different places was the step I needed to take to decide what I wanted to do -- which is help solve people's emotional problems," Tyler said.

Tyler said she picked Metro State because of cost and it had a good psychology department.

Even though Tyler was late to her first class of the day, the students were released early and Tyler headed to the library for some studying before her next class at 11:30 a.m., Research and Methodology I.

She arrived to class 15 minutes early and promptly took a seat in the front row.

"For most classes, I usually like to sit in the middle of the second row, not right up front," Tyler said. "But I've had the professor before and really like him.

After her hour-and-15-minute class, Tyler rushed across campus to her part-time receptionist job at the early learning center -- something she looks forward to.

"I really like working here," said Tyler. "The energy is really fun and the people are great."

Tyler quickly got busy answering phones, processing payments from parents and interacting with the children as they left for the day.

"My favorite part is saying goodbye to the children, asking them how their day was," said Tyler.

Tyler left work at 6 p.m. and headed home to study, be with her husband and dog and catch up on chores around the house.

"It was hard to adjust when I first quit working and became a full-time student," said Tyler. "I felt like I wasn't contributing to my family. I don't feel that way anymore though -- this is what I need to do to get to the next step in life."