Dear Queenie,
I am thinking about going back to school. Many years ago, I started working towards a degree but life happened. Family responsibilities took priority, and somewhere along the way, finishing university moved further and further down my list. I built a life. I worked. I raised a family. I gained experience. But that unfinished degree has always remained in the back of my mind. Now I finally have more time for myself, and I have been looking at the programmes at USM and seriously considering applying for the spring semester. There's just one thing holding me back. My age. I wouldn't simply be a mature student. I'd be a super mature student. I keep imagining myself walking into the first class and realizing everyone around me is young enough to be my child, or, worse, my grandchild. They'll be talking about TikTok while I'm wondering whether I remembered my reading glasses. What if I can't keep up? What if I'm the strange older person everyone politely tolerates during group assignments? Part of me says I've waited long enough and should finally check this off my to-do list. Another part says perhaps university is something whose time has passed. Queenie, am I too old to go back to school? —Mature With a Capital
Dear Mature With a Capital M,
Let me answer your last question first. No. Now let's deal with the question you're actually asking: "Will I feel out of place?" Possibly. You may walk into a classroom and discover that your classmates were born after you got your first job. You may hear slang you don't understand. You may find yourself in a group project with someone who begins a message with: "Hey guys, sorry I didn't do my part..." And at that moment, you will discover that irritation with group assignments has absolutely no age limit. But consider what you bring into that classroom. You aren't arriving with only textbooks and ambition. You're bringing decades of work, family responsibilities, mistakes, successes, disappointments and practical experience. A 19-year-old and a 60-year-old can read the same chapter and understand it very differently. That's one of the benefits of education later in life. You're not only learning information. You have a lifetime against which to test it. And please stop thinking about this degree as something you should have completed years ago. You didn't fail to finish your life because you didn't finish university. You made choices according to what your circumstances required at the time. Now your circumstances have changed. So can your priorities. As for being the oldest person in class? Own it. Someone has to be. If you're old enough to be everyone's mother, auntie or grandmother, so what? You're not enrolling to win Homecoming Queen. You're going to study. My only caution is practical. Before enrolling, make sure the programme works with your finances, schedule, energy and long-term goals. Returning to university should enrich your life, not become another obligation you feel compelled to complete simply because it has been sitting on an old to-do list. But if you still want that degree? Apply. There is no expiry date stamped on curiosity. And imagine yourself a few years from now. You will have aged whether you enrolled or not. You might as well be older...with the degree you always wanted. —Queenie
