Attending college can be fun, but it also involves a lot of waiting. Whether you order books online or stand in the queue at the campus bookstore, pop into Starbucks for a coffee or the student office to update your ID card, there is always a wait for something.
For me, the wait is for the final word on whether or not I am finished with college. It has taken an awfully long time to get one little degree, but I guess I can wait a day or two more. At least I’m not standing in line.
Back in 1977, my guidance counselor told me, in no uncertain terms, that I wasn’t college material. I applied to evening classes at the local Ivy League college anyway, and when I told the counselor that I had been accepted, I actually got a congratulatory reply. Go figure people sometimes.
Ever since then I have gone to college whenever I had the opportunity. Obviously there have been a few breaks, and it has taken me two Ivy League institutions and a county college to do it, but the end is in sight at last. The results lie in the hands of my overworked (and often under-appreciated) advisers. These people handle thousands of students every semester, and somehow manage to stick to a solid program of determining who has completed the necessary courses and waited in enough lines to get a diploma. I’m on that short list. I submitted my form last October and waited in cyber-queue for a response. The line is moving up. . . .