Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/5838/-1/223/
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It is usually the young who graduate from university. Parents scrimp and save, push and scheme to send their precious offspring to the institution of choice and then the student is expected to study hard to fulfil expectations. At the end of a set number of courses the goal is reached: a qualification in the chosen discipline. Students graduate from university amidst heartiest congratulations from well wishers.
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Penny Legg
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What, though, happens to those who, for one reason or another, miss out on higher education? Perhaps financial hardship prevents them from studying or ill health intervenes? War comes or they just plain do not know what they want to do with their lives. What happens to these people? Are they doomed to join those who do not have the ability or the inclination to better themselves through education? Are they destined to spend the rest of their lives thinking of what might have been?
Speaking as one who had the opportunity to attend university in England, to take a hotel and catering management degree, but whose fiancé, a member of the Royal Navy, was sent to war while I was sitting my ‘A’ (Advanced) level examinations, I can sympathise with people who spend their lives thinking of opportunities missed.
I admit I was worried sick about my sailor. I watched every news broadcast on television, listened to every radio news bulletin, read every report. In short, I ate, breathed and slept the Falklands War. Result, I failed my exams. I let myself and my family down. At the time it did not seem to matter. I needed to know what was happening in the South Atlantic.
Of course, no ‘A’ levels, no university admittance for Penny.
So, years passed. My sailor left the Navy to become a diplomat and we travelled the world together.
Employers though tended to look down their noses at my résumé, no matter how long the list of qualifications became over the years. I did not have a degree; it was as simple as that. Something had to be done.
In 2001 I began studying with the Open University in England. Set up in 1969 with forty two courses, it now offers hundreds of options for online and distance studies as well as taught post graduate degrees. It offers both Arts and Sciences and is a respected centre of learning in the UK. It prides itself on its ability to take any student, regardless of academic prowess, or the lack of it, and guide them through their chosen courses.
I decided to study subjects I had always been interested in but which were not those I would have considered for academic study earlier in my life. I took courses in Internet Research and Spanish to complement my core topics, Classics and Art History. I learnt time management, patience and flexibility, perfected the art of being able to juggle my job, my family, my home and my studies and to hit deadline every time. Of course, this last discipline is something every writer learns from the beginning and is a skill that is useful in all spheres of life. I studied part time, in my own time, and moved house and country four times in the six years it took me to complete my degree.
I took several examinations in Bangladesh and believe I still hold the distinction of being the only student to sit a Classics examination at the British Council in the capital, Dhaka. I had to explain the subject to the adjudicator, who had never heard of it before.
In October 2007 I took my final examination, here on Anguilla, in Art History. I remember looking at the paper and ticking off all the questions I couldn’t answer! I was woefully under revised as we had had a succession of visitors and I had been extremely busy with various commissions. I came home after the test, put my books away and started looking up the instructions for what to do to retake failed exams! I am sure my friends will remember my long face and stressed frown, which lasted until I received the good news that I had passed the course, and thus the degree, in December. This news completely stunned me!
On Saturday 12 April 2008, my family and I travelled to the Barbican Centre in central London, where I joined other like minded students who had refused to give up on themselves and graduated from the Open University with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Art History and Classics. It was an emotional day for us all. My father, who readers of this column may remember as being very ill last November, managed to join my mother, husband and son, resplendent in a new three piece suit bought for the occasion, in a day which ended with a hard earned bottle of good champagne.
For those of you reading this, who, for whatever reason, missed out on higher education earlier in life, I would urge you to think about it now. It is NEVER too late to catch up and the sense of achievement is worth the hard work of studying with the pressures that everyday life heaps upon you.
As for me, I have since taken and passed a photography course with the Open University. Soon I will be taking my PADI Rescue Diver Course on my way to becoming a Master Scuba Diver and will begin a further photography course in June. I am currently researching my options for a Masters to start next year. Obtaining my BA was just the beginning!