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Sunday 19 May 2013

Simply a moment - May 17th

I'm standing in the middle of a book shop. Not any old bookshop, but the one in the middle of Canterbury Christchurch University. I am here on a visit with Penny and we are being shown around by her course director. She and Penny are chatting away about books they like. I stand and watch them, so at ease with one another even though one is tutor and the other student and they are almost a generation apart. Other students mill around me, chatting easily together, happy and relaxed. There is that lovely smell of new books. I feel envious. I never went to university and would have loved to experience what these youngsters are lucky enough to have. When I was leaving school no one suggested that I went to uni as I didn't have a clear career path or idea of what I wanted to do. There was no point in spending all that money on something that might not lead to anything. Far better to go out and get a job. Now I feel envious of Penny and Ben and Hugh. I am the only one not to have gone to uni, to have experienced uni life. I sometimes feel inferior to them although they say that is silly,that  I am clever and could have gone. Why don't I do an OU course now? Working full time and supporting Penny whilst she is away from home I don't have the time - not without giving up scrapbooking and I NEED my scrapbooking! All this goes through mind and then I notice that Penny and Carolyn are ready to move on. Penny grins at me happily. She is so reassured now about attending this campus and I have helped with that. I do have a degree - a degree in motherhood and wifehood (?!) and I should be proud of how I have managed to bring up both my children to be happy and fulfilled and proud that Hugh and I have been happily married for 26 years. Anyway, if I had gone to uni I wouldn't have gone out to work and met Hugh and I may not be where I am now - happy and contented.
Courtesy of CCCU website
I am linking up with Alexa of Trimming the Sails. Do drop by her blog to read her beautiful words (and see her wonderful layout) and the words of other bloggers as they stop and record a moment in May.

11 comments:

scrappyjacky said...

You certainly should be proud,Becky....and you have been through a very important university....the university of life.

Lou said...

Scrappyjacky has said it so well. good luck to you daughter with all the changes that lie ahead x

alexa said...

Glad you worked your way through to realising your own worth :). There are plenty of years left to go to uni if you'd like to- I have a seventy year old acquaintance who has just started this year ... Thank -you,so much for your sensitively told moment and for linking up this month again :).

Maria Ontiveros said...

What a great moment of realization. I love the idea of a degree in motherhood.
Rinda

Sian said...

A degree in motherhood sounds like a remarkably fine achievement to me!

Missus Wookie said...

I'm another who wonders about what might have been but like you am happy and content. A degree in motherhood etc. sounds well worth being proud of!

Alison said...

A lovely moment, Becky...and like the others, I'm glad you have come to realise that a University Degree isn't the be all and end all!
Alison xx

Sandra said...

I totally understand you, I never went to uni either and often wonder what other turn my life would have taken, x

Miriam said...

This is such a beautiful and honest moment Becky, Yes you are rightly proud of what you have achieved.

Anonymous said...

A beautifully told moment Becky. I'm glad you realized a university degree is not necessarily the be and end all.

Karen said...

A lovely moment, and a wonderful realization that, indeed, you have one of the most important degrees there is!