Aren't You A Bit Old To Be A Student?

Being a mature student has it's pro's and cons. One the one hand I have life experience, motivation and over 20 years of experience in the workplace but on the other hand the household logistics are a nightmare, I'm old and I have to spend a lot of time with cocky 18 year old boys (not in the good way)

When I started university I was brand new to web design and programming, so sitting there listening to a group of young lads complaining loudly that they'd been using Dreamweaver since they were in Year 10 was a bit worrying. I'd never used it in my life. When I was in Year 10 it was still called 4th Year and we learnt BBC Basic. At this point I started to wonder exactly what I'd let myself in for. Would everybody else know more than me? Would I be able to keep up? Will I manage 3 years without slapping any annoying teenage boys?

The good news is that the mouthy teenage boys were only a tiny percentage of the class, so whilst they deemed learning HTML to be below them, the majority of the class just went with the flow and got on with it. I wasn't the only person who was new at this, so I was just like everybody else - just older. The other good news is that although Dreamweaver is a fantastic tool, it's not the only way to build websites.

Being old enough to be everybody's Mum isn't ideal, but when my Marketing lecturers start talking about 1980's television ad campaigns, being the only other person in the room who was actually born at the time is a definite advantage. Explaining Cadbury's Smash to people under the age of 20 is practically a seminar in itself, so that particular day being old was a bonus. We had similar discussions about the chimps in the PG Tips TV ads. Dressing up chimpanzees and getting them to play the piano and drink tea just isn't as popular as it once was in advertising.

There are two main disadvantages to being a mature student. One is logistics and the other is the ageing process. Personally I don't think that 18 is the best age for most people to spend 3 years of their life and an obscene amount of money on their development, but on the other hand carrying a rucksack full of very heavy text books would have been a damn sight easier if  I was still 18.  For the first time ever I'm using both straps on my ruck sack. I have to, other wise by the time I graduate there is a very real posibility that I'll have a hump like quasi modo. I'm too old to be cool so I might as well do my spine a favour and distribute the weight evenly. I'm not particularly hung up on my looks or obsessed about my age but developing those first few lines around my eyes and discovering my first couple of grey hairs when you're permanently surrounded by people half your age is just depressing. The good news is that as long as you wear a hoodie you can usually blend in and people still hand you flyers for foam parties and all nighters. I have no intention of going to most of them but I feel strangely upset when they don't invite me. Unfortunately being regularly dressed as a 12 year old boy is definitely NOT the best look for me. 

The biggest downside to being a mature student isn't actually my age - it's my lifestyle (using the term very loosely) or more specifically the logistics of my lifestyle. The majority of people at university are in the 18-21 age bracket, have no children, live in or around campus and as such can arrange the rest of their life around their timetable. It's not the university's fault that some of us don't fit the mould, but that won't stop me whining about it. I know that sharing details at the last minute is the only way the university can finalise numbers and co-ordinate the timetables of 30,000 people, but finding out your timetable the week before you start your lectures is a pain in the neck if you need to co-ordinate family logistics. Most students don't have to arrange childcare and / or euphonium lessons and most of my fellow students will never have to miss lectures because reading week isn't the same time as half term or because half of year one caught Chicken Pox.

So in answer to the question "Aren't you a bit old to be a student?" in the words of Phineas from Disney's Phineas and Ferb "Yes, yes I am"