by Neill Barry

Created on: February 03, 2009   Last Updated: February 17, 2009

The truth is I never thought I was clever enough for university.

As a teenager I had an attention span of a distracted goldfish. .

In my late twenties I went to a Technical College which gave me equivalency to enter University should I ever actually choose to go.

Some years later I found myself deeply unfulfilled with my life, my work was suffering and after several disciplinary meetings I was told I would probably be let go.

My supervisor finally suggested to do some study.

Work allowed me to drop back my hours by one day per week. I had a couple of weeks leave to consider what units to study and I found a Marketing course which I thought would be natural for me.

The first day was spine chilling!

I was really lost, and arrived a full hour early for my first lecture, I topped it off by drinking too much coffee.

I was standing outside the lecture theatre and I met a couple of people whom I thought were other mature age students and naturally I made a mess of my introductions.

After entering my first lecture I found out the person I'd just introduced myself was the professor and the lady next to him, a lecturer. Now I had the special privilege of being the one remembered as awkward, great!

Failed introductions, still echoing in my head, the lecture started, and within 5 minutes I felt renewed, purposeful and confident I had picked the right subject. It was entertaining, stimulating and surprisingly interactive.

By the third week I was doing group assignments, had several group memberships and had made some friends. Everyone I met was from a different background, culture or part of the world.

By the end of the semester I had one of the top marks in my class.

I was on top of the world.

I had friends and the Professor knew my name now for the right reasons.

I really appreciated this experience and think I would like to be a life long student.

I would highly recommend University to mature age people. You can take your time more. You aren't rushed like school, and I definitely didn't do the amount of units some students overwhelm themselves with.

I learnt a couple of things.

Enjoying what you study helps you learn more effectively.

We each need to find our optimum work and life balance and realize how to keep them balanced.

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