When I think about all the various transitions I have made in my life—from a child into a teenager, from a girl into a woman, from sleeping on friends’ couches and asking parents to help out to paying bills, voting, watching the news, and being politically aware—I’m also aware of the transition I never made: from graduating high school to hopping into college life.
I never sat in the high-school cafeteria with my friends, chatting excitedly about which college we were trying to get into. I made the transition of coming back to college after a great deal of my life had been lived and a huge number of choices had been made, some of them good, most bad.
When the time came to finally face the prospect of going back to school, I was terrified. I knew that I had to stop dancing my way through life and to figure myself out. I had no idea what would happen, but I also knew I had nothing to lose.
I remember the entire process vividly; I had all the same worries at 35 that I did when I was five as a new kid in kindergarten. Would people think I was weird? Would people like me? Would I be able to make friends? And the big one—would I be able to do it, to do this work, after all this time?
When I walked onto campus on my first day, my brain full of the atrocities that accompany buying textbooks, as well as the excitement of post-secondary in general, I wondered, would I ever be able to keep up with these tech-savvy, fresh-faced Gen Zs and Millennials? Would my fears subside, or should I run to the nearest exit and never look back? Then the magic moment happened—I was handed, in the library, my brand-new Camosun College ID card. It was bold and brazen, with a photo of me grinning so wildly that one might wonder if I had run into the bathroom and taken something exciting. That sealed the deal for me. This was where I was meant to be. I would not run out the door; I would stay and figure out this college thing, and then maybe (maybe) I would find out what I was going to be when I grew up.
Noticing the differences between myself as a mature (yeah, okay) student now as compared to me in high school, I am much more aware of myself in the classroom. I am totally engaged. I ask as many questions as I can. Even if I still wrestle with the idea that I might be an idiot for not knowing something, the difference is, at this age, I don’t care (as much) about what people think of me.
I decided I needed to write this article because I wanted to know if other students have felt the same things as me. I also wanted to talk to instructors to see if they have noticed the same thing about students who come back after a life of living.
I also wanted to find out about the ones who don’t wait—the ones who dive straight in, holding nothing back. Is it their own dreams they’re following, or someone else’s? Are they feeling the same feelings about learning that I did? Do they have similar hopes and fears? I have sat in the classroom and been astounded by how much my younger counterparts know. I mean, sometimes some lovely 19- or 20-year-old will say something so utterly, well, intelligent and sensitive that I am completely thrown off—not because I doubted them, but because of how little I knew at that age.
Camosun English instructor Thea Todd has a calm nature and a gentle voice, and when we meet up to chat for this story, I feel immediately at ease in her presence. Todd says that the biggest difference between mature students and ones who arrive right after high school comes down to, indeed, age.
“Because when you come back,” she says, “maybe you have been working and you decide that ‘I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life; I want to go back to school.’ There is an awful lot of experience that you have that the ones coming from high school perhaps don’t have—maybe they haven’t had a phone bill yet, or maybe they haven’t lived on their own yet—all of that experience we shouldn’t downplay because it’s very important.”
Todd says that mature students are eager to get to their program and that they have come to their program specifically, as opposed to just flowing in from high school.
“They want something. They’re very keen, very efficient; they keep to deadlines and ask for help when they need it,” she says about mature students. “Generally speaking, they’re excellent students, because they really want to be there. I do find that too, though, that the ones coming straight into college from high school are also very keen—they want to come to college, and they have a goal in mind. It is really quite a pleasure to work with them, because they are gung-ho to get where they are going, wherever that may be.”
Camosun English instructor Maureen Niwa has a similar outlook on what a mature student will bring to the classroom.
“The mature students are a bit more focused,” says Niwa. “They seem to know exactly why they are coming, what they love to do, and have a clear edge on their passion. A lot of them have already worked, and so lots of times they are looking to increase the skills they are already using day to day. Mature students, they love to build a community within the classroom. I sometimes get the sense that they are very socially orientated. They are good at connecting with the younger generation, their own generation too—they like to create relationships. And they are not afraid to reach out, share their interests. They’re more confident with sharing themselves in the classroom.”
I resonate with this. As an older student, I throw myself into my work and my class in a way I never would have dreamt I would be capable of. Camosun English instructor Julian Gunn reaffirms the idea that mature students have a lot of dedication.
“There are a lot of differences,” Gunn says. “You probably have heard of this one—the mature student is very focused, they have a goal in mind, they are more likely to approach the course as a task to be completed. Which is, I think, a very productive way to do it, because you don’t really get bogged down and attach a lot of personal worth to marks, whereas I think that a student fresh out of school has less experience of the world, and still might assign a lot of emotional attachment to those marks, and might treat it more of a personal pass or fail rather than a step towards a much larger goal.”
Gunn says that mature students also, generally speaking, excel in areas of planning.
“A mature student will come in and say, ‘I am going to have to do a certain amount of work on this; it isn’t going to magically all come together at the end.’ Where someone who has had less experience of life planning—and I remember this phase of my life well—might think, ‘Well, it’s not happening right now, but something will happen at the exam, and everything will turn out alright,’ when that is really never how it works. So, a little less magical thinking with the mature students.”
I myself happen to miss that magical thinking. Sometimes the practicality that comes with age seems dull compared to how it used to be in the mad dash of youth.
The students who come to college shortly after graduation have plenty to say about their own experiences with college and high school and what got them there.
Second-year Criminal Justice student Jacob McDonald, 19, says the transition from high school to college was positive.
“I care about a lot more, because in high school you don’t get to pick as much what you are doing. In college I am actually interested when I study, and I don’t study that often, actually,” McDonald chuckles. “[But when I do,] I feel motivated to, because I am reading about stuff that I like.”
Kaitlin McKelvey, who recently graduated from the Mental Health and Addiction program, also came to college directly from high school. McKelvey, 19, really noticed the faster pace of college life.
“The biggest change I noticed was the flexibility and the style in which the profs worked,” says McKelvey. “In high school there was a lot more one-on-one support. In college, although they were there for support… they definitely didn’t have as much time to spare.”
Second-year Philosophy student Samantha Kobiersky, 39, says that college is a friendly and fast-paced environment. Kobiersky returned to school after several years’ experience in the work force.
“Overall, college is more accepting,” says Kobiersky. “I see people being more open to all different walks of life, of different backgrounds. I find it a very open community, more or less. I found that, coming from a background of dropping out of school and hating school before, that now I actually love school in the areas that I’m passionate about. That passion now is my security.”
Second-year Community, Family and Child Studies student Jason Tate, 25, came back to school after spending some years in the workforce. Tate found the answers to what he wanted to do back when he was in high school, which makes me wonder: are life’s answers available to us sooner than we think?
“During my time in high school I remember taking both peer counselling and psychology,” Tate says. “During that time, I became interested in how sorting out problems through counselling [works] and how psychology explains how the human mind works. After spending some time working after high school I decided to invest in a career of mental health and promoting wellness.”
First-year Health Care Assistant student Chloe Oulette, 27, says that there is a lot of anxiety involved with coming back to school.
“You know, it’s funny—I actually didn’t complete high school; I left at around Grade 11. It’s actually been fairly challenging getting into the swing of things again,” she says. “I find that not just with myself but with a lot of the other students here. I feel, though, with my age now, that I have matured a lot, and I am more interested in the studies, as opposed to when I was in high school, where I was a little bit rebellious. I was not as engaged as I am now.”
Mental Health and Addictions instructor Michelle Bass reaffirms that there can be anxiety accompanying a student’s return to school.
“Obviously, life experience is the big difference between the two groups,” she says. “Sometimes people that are re-entering the college can be a bit more anxious; they have been out of school for a long time, so they may be a bit insecure about their abilities. But we find that when they get over that initial hump of readjustment, those students do just as well as anyone coming to the school immediately from high school. Perhaps they might be a bit clearer about their commitment to the study, but, to be honest, I don’t really like to generalize, because I can see that too with younger students who can also be very committed. But mature students may have had some more life experience, and some job experience, which can make a difference in the way that they apply themselves.”
McKelvey’s anxieties lie in the possibility of being that mature student in the future.
“I feel ready for the future,” she says, “but the only thing I feel might be a possible challenge is when I do decide to go back to school, I feel that it might be harder to learn as quickly and as easily as I did after high school.”
Mental Health and Addictions instructor Kristen Ross believes in the meaning that students find in teaching and learning from each other.
“I think that students who come back to college who are worried about coming back need to think about the younger students who would be missing out if they weren’t in that class,” she says. “They would miss out on all that wisdom and experience that you can contribute.”
Niwa says that she loves the energy that younger students bring to the classroom.
“With ones just arriving, I love that they are so fresh,” she says. “They have such new eyes, and they are always asking the questions that should be asked, and sometimes they’re very obvious, but they are always getting us to re-think why we’re doing it—why we’re teaching. They bring a lot of energy to the classroom that way.”
Gunn says that he would like to tell younger students two things.
“One is, and I speak from experience, just do the work,” he says. “Read and do the assignment. But the other thing is don’t sweat it. Don’t worry about the small stuff so much, because so often I will find students getting really bogged down by really small things and not really prioritizing. The dirty secret is, as far as taking a class goes, you need to pass it. As an instructor, you want everyone to show up on time and do all the assignments, but, really, you can prioritize. You can let some things go in order to let the big thing happen. Be as practical as you can.”
Ross believes the important thing to tell students is to not be afraid of trying.
“It is important to take risks,” she says. “It is often true that we hear from people coming back to school after a few years [thinking] ‘I am too old,’ or [with] concerns that they won’t fit in. And sometimes students coming out of high school are worried or have some stress about making that transition, too. Post-secondary has many more demands and expectations. I would say, to both groups, be willing to take risks because you are going to learn from each other. Instructors also learn from students all the time. So just know that everyone’s there with their own concerns and anxieties about being in this new setting, and know that everyone is in it together.”
Ross says that it’s a nice addition to classes when there are students who are coming back after they have had some responsibilities in life.
“Perhaps raising a family, or just different life experiences,” she says. “I think they are often bringing a different perspective based on those experiences. What we really like to see is how everyone in our class interacts when they can come from that place of sharing those experiences. So often it creates a very rich learning environment.”
Niwa says the words I wish to God I had heard when I was younger.
“I would tell a young person to be yourself,” she says. “You don’t have to be anybody but yourself, and the gifts that you have are the ones that you want to spend the most time developing.”
Gunn says that as a culture, we are not that good at sitting and paying attention to one thing for a long time, something that he says is a “really deep skill.”
“It’s not just good for school, but it is great for everything, for having a deeper, richer relationship to life,” he says. “The little piece of that we do in English is we sit down and read this long, serious article, and, yes, it takes a long time, and it may be kind of boring, but that kind of deep attention is actually really good for your brain.”
Of course, all students—“mature” or “new”—face stressors and difficulties in college. The question is, how do we deal? Even though I came back to school as a mature student, the financial stressors are still very much a reality. I know, though, that when I was younger, I did not handle stress as well. It took me years to have the maturity to face my problems head-on. Another perk of being older is feeling like you’re on a more even plane with your instructors. It’s huge. I’m always hearing touching stories of how an instructor at Camosun has changed a student’s life. However, sometimes it is the other way around. Niwa recalls a time when a mature student in her class made an unforgettable mark on her.
“Mature students are often the second teachers in the room, if not the first,” says Niwa, “They nurture everyone, the instructor included. For instance, I was a TA at UVic years ago, and in the first section I ever taught I had a First Nations chief. His name was Wilbur—I’m sorry, I’m not sure what territory he was from—and I had a student from Sri Lanka; he had just immigrated. I was so blessed to have both of those men. I cannot think of two more diametrically opposed students, with their age, their culture, everything. And the way that Wilbur connected all of us, he brought all of us together, every day. He just made a real lasting impression on me, on how important it is to build community in the classroom, and how everyone—everyone—can be included.”
All students, regardless of age, have to find their own path and then foster what they find. Going to school and having the opportunity to learn is a gift. Whenever we decide that it’s time for us to make use of that gift—whether it is shortly after graduating from high school or after a lengthy ride on the merry-go-round of life—then the object is to dive in without abandon and, hopefully, make a positive impression on someone.
Gunn wraps it up eloquently and makes me realize that we are all valuable, and interesting, at any age.
“My favourite part of any class is when students are just talking about how they responded to something,” he says. “Every class, some student, any student, no matter the age, will come up with original ideas that would never have occurred to me. That’s the exciting thing for me, is hearing that new thing that I couldn’t come up with myself because I didn’t have their perspective. That is the fun part for me”