Going to College at “40”
Nicole Lonon
Professor Katrina Zaleski
ENG090 Writing Fundamentals
February 26, 2012
Going to College at Forty
Today is a very special day. It is June 7, 1988. I am nervous as I approach the stage and wait for my name to be called. The announcer calls my name and I walk across the stage as the principal reads “….has satisfactorily completed the Course of Study prescribed for graduation by the Board of Public Education for the City of Savannah and the County of Chatham and is hereby awarded this diploma.” I have successfully graduated from high school. Now is the beginning of new experiences to come. Most of my peers are planning on going to college.
My parents were hard workers with three children at home to take care of. A college education wasn’t a necessity that they grew up with. They never talked to me about going to college, and my teachers didn’t push it on me either. My mother did take some courses in a technical school before she started working. My father, after time served in the military, worked for the same company until he retired. I have worked since the last part of my senior year. I’ve had good jobs with good companies, making what I thought was good money. To me, college was not a priority as long as I had a job. I already had my own car. I had gotten married two years after graduation. Now I had a husband to help provide and support me and my family.
Fast forward twenty-two years later, and my oldest daughter is getting ready to graduate from high school, class of 2010. A few months before graduation, she and I attended a college expo. I really went to support her but ended up being enticed into filling out information for college too. A few months later I got a call from New England College of Business and Finance in Boston, MA. One month later I was enrolled and began my college career with two online courses a quarter. At seventeen years of age, college is a fun, new place for...