I started graduate school at the University of Texas in 1994 at age forty-two. The day was exactly twenty years after I had walked onto the UT campus for the first time to get my under graduate degree in 1974.
I had been a stay-at-home mom, caring for three children and helping our family survive on one income. But events changed and I needed to get back into the world. I needed a job. Computers were relatively new and I was low on confidence and unsure as to how to find my way.
Graduate school seemed like the obvious answer. I did the required prerequisite class in statistics at community college. I was the oldest class member in all situations but I persevered and grew in confidence. My brain worked just fine albeit a bit slower. I had to take the GREs (Graduate Record Examination), a standardized entrance exam in math and English. I hadn’t had algebra since high school. A prep class, a lot of studying, crossed fingers and I passed with a more than adequate score. Success breeds success!
When Lisa and I left Texas for Bacalar in 2013 we had to make a lot of decisions as to what we would keep and what items were sold or given away.
For some reason, I held onto my old graduate school term papers. Writing them had taught me so much. I learned how to do research, spending hours in library stacks. Today’s students would laugh at how things were done in the “old days”.
These term papers were the beginning of honing my skills as a writer. Best of all were the comments from teachers. Where else does someone of import write “Well done”, appreciating the extraordinary effort of a middle-aged mom returning to academia? I have held onto these papers for almost thirty years. Time to let them go. Today I can look back and pat myself on the back and say “well done”. I no longer need confirmation from out-dated college term papers.
DOS TORTAS
the adventures of dos tortas 
Very cool! As a psychology major who did one year in graduate school (later changing to computer sci), I can definitely relate to those term papers. Most of mine were done on my electric typewriter, whose “q” key stopped working at some point, meaning that I had to write that letter in, in pen, everywhere it occurred. Fortunately, that didn’t stop my professors from giving me good marks, and like you, I eventually had to let those papers go, when we downsized to move to Belize in 2011. It’s difficult to let go of the past, but I know I feel lighter now and hope you will also!
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It feels good to let go of the fantasy that anyone else, ie my children will read and appreciate my work. I even got bored rereading them, 😂 My professors wanted me to continue and get my PhD but the idea was more than I could handle at the time.
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Sounds similar! I was on the PhD track in psychology and just couldn’t continue on. Something in me told me that it was the wrong thing for me. I sometimes wonder how different my life would have been had I continued along that path.
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The road not taken. I have a few of those.
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I started on my masters at 43. I’m okay with all the papers that are gone except one, and it was for a one-unit class I took for fun that had nothing to do with my degree. The paper was about sixty pages and was about ancient Mayan healing techniques and herbs.
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Well done for passing with flying colours! My last school report from 1976 had ‘no hope’ written on it by my physics teacher. I still have it in a box somewhere 😉
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Now that’s how you inspire success! You certainly didn’t listen.
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Nice! I love this! I too, was an “older returning student”. It’s not easy and…you gotta want it! (Which obviously, we both did!)
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Nancy! Happy to see your smiling face here. 😊
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🥰
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