by Ann Scott

Created on: June 28, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

We usually think of graduating from high school then going directly into college. That is usually the way it is, but when I graduated from high school my parents did not have the money to send me to college. I really wanted to go, but I was a shy country girl, and I knew nothing about how to find my way around in the world, and with no money I just knew that it was something that I could only dream about.

After high school, I got a job as a secretary in an insurance office, then later as a Junior Stenographer in a state office. I worked from 1960 until 1967. I married in 1963 to a wonderful man and five years later started my family. By that time I was excited about having children, enjoying my home, and had completely forgotten that I had wanted to go to college.

I had my first child, a boy, in 1968; adopted a little girl in 1974; and had my second child, another girl, in 1976. I had my very own little babies, and I loved them more than I could imagine. The next few years were spent enjoying and taking care of my family.

In 1980, when my baby daughter was four years old a town near where we lived started some college courses branching from the university in another town several miles away. A friend of mine heard about it and told me. We were excited about the opportunity that had eluded us in our younger years, so after some consideration we applied for a state grant and decided that we'd take the plunge.

It was quite interesting. I have always loved to learn, and after having graduated from high school twenty years earlier, there were a lot of interesting things to learn. We took math courses, English courses, Literature, history, all the basic college courses at the branch school. We were just going to take the classes for fun and to brush up on our education. We did not plan to ever do anything with it.

I could only get two years of school there in that town, so after I had taken all the classes I could take, I began to toy with the idea of going on to the University and finishing my degree. My husband and I discussed the idea, and finally decided that I should go ahead and finish since I had completed as many hours as I had. The University was about ninety five miles or so from where I lived, so I took summer courses for two summers, then spent two semesters on campus. I would drive back and forth from home to school on week-ends or my family would come to visit with me.

Having two small children and a teenager at home made for an awkward situation. My husband

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