Never too old

It’s official.  I’m a university student.  I like to think I’m a life-long student – there are always opportunities for learning.  But life learning is not usually a classroom with a professor and taking tests on what’s been taught. 

So 39 years after my college classmates graduated, I’m hoping to get my diploma in May.  I only needed 5 credits to graduate – so close.  Who knew?

Tommy encouraged me to do the investigation on what it would take to graduate.  It took a while for them to find my transcripts (they must have been saved in some old dark-ages vault!). But after they did and blew off all the dust, it didn’t take that much more effort to figure out what was still required of me.

On Saturday, I went to orientation at Cairn University where incoming students were served a delicious breakfast, heard a speech from the provost and another from the director of the degree completion program.  Then a lot of time was spent giving instruction on how to do e-learning. 

This is the 21^st century and this experience will be a lot different from when I went to school.  Actually, I think it will be a lot easier.  I remember typing papers up on a typewriter and miscalculating how much room to leave for footnotes.  Then the whole page needed to be retyped.  It was really an exercise in patience and diligence to write a paper in those days.  I do not have fond memories of that.  Now we have computers which will help immensely. 

My first class begins on Feb. 23 and runs for 5 weeks – Saturdays from 9:00 – 1:00.  Then I’ll get a week off before beginning my second class which will be done in time for me to graduate in May.

So the bill has been paid, I've got my t-shirt and I'm ready to go.