‘Tis true; last September, at age 55, I began my first year of university studies! I had previously alluded to it as a “project,” and what a project it turned out to be.
At the encouragement of a friend, on August 1 of last year, I began the application process. With the student financial aid situation having been improved recently and favourable to my circumstances, I thought, “I must try now, or keep kicking myself.” Within three days, I had the entire application done, with all supporting documents and high school transcript ordered, plus all the forms for financial aid. Then, I waited. Due to the challenging nature of the program I applied to, I was sure I wouldn’t get in. Also, the program was to begin in four weeks.
A week and a half later, I received an acceptance letter from the school! I had thought it would take two to four weeks. I about fell over from shock! I had a few days to decide and send a non-refundable deposit, but I also needed to wait to hear about financial aid. In the end, I went ahead and sent my deposit, hoping it wouldn’t be for nothing. Fairly soon after that, all the financial aid ended up working out. I ended up receiving quite a decent portion of it in grants!! I was really surprised by that, too.
The rest of August was spent running around filling out more forms, tracking down all the books from the book list, waiting for them to arrive, finding a decent backpack, cooking meals for the freezer.
September 6 arrived, and as I rode the public transit bus on that sunny morning, I couldn’t stop smiling. Suffice it to say that I absolutely LOVED the program; all the reading and the lectures by a variety of professors, plus the tutorials. The program is called the Foundation Year Program, delivered at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Four days a week, we attended two-hour lectures and one-hour tutorials. Once a week, we attended a General Tutorial where we could ask questions of the week’s lecturers. Every two weeks, we wrote 1200-1500 word papers. These would be generated from a quote we would choose from a list of quotes from the books we’d just read on philosophy (so. much. philosophy!), history, art, literature, and sociology. Suffice it to say that I spent all my time outside of school and work reading and writing. It was simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting, but I don’t regret one minute of having done this. I’m two weeks past having submitted my final paper, and I am still pinching myself that I actually FINALLY got started on university studies after wishing for it over so many years. I will write another post about what it was like as an older student.
How about you? Do any of you readers have stories about going back to school when you are older? I read a ton of these stories before I decided, so I’d love to hear yours, too!
