The End is Near

Today marks a milestone in my life - 12 years of dedication and hard work.

I will be attending the first session of the final class I must take to receive my BFA in Creative and Professional Writing. And can you believe that my final class is Astronomy. I can't help but laugh a little at that one.

The final science I needed for my GP classes just never fit in my schedule. I work full time and I had to balance my career with my school. I've been lucky. My employer and my supervisors have worked with me allowing me to adjust my schedule for my classes.

And while I wish my final class had more to do with my major than general education credits, I am delighted to be taking this class. I hope that I will see a few familiar faces, but since this will mostly be filled with freshmen and sophomores, probably not.

I arrived at this milestone thanks to Dear Abby and my good friend Lori.

I read a column in Dear Abby where a man was considering going to medical school, but at forty years old - he was facing eight years of education and would be forty-eight before becoming a doctor. Dear Abby's response: he was going to be forty-eight anyway so why not welcome forty-eight as a physician rather than a man with regrets.

Lori and I met because we were dating brothers. We still like to laugh that the only good thing that came out of those relationships was our friendship. Lori had been going to school for years, first at a community college and later at Converse College, a prestigious women's college in Spartanburg. She only had a few more classes to graduate. I was thirty-five at the time – not going to college was my biggest regret.

I started my first class the following January. My kids were still in school. There were many nights the three of us spent hours at the kitchen table studying for our classes. My kids are grown now. I am a grandmother. And this spring I will be a college graduate at forty-seven.