“Grandma Graduates,” Liahona, Apr. 2023, United States and Canada Section.
Aging Faithfully
Grandma Graduates
My education journey gave me a new sense of accomplishment in my 60s that I never realized would happen.
Photographs courtesy of the author
On trips to see my grandkids, my laptop and I traveled with a desire to fulfill a bucket-list dream. I graduated in July 2022 from Brigham Young University–Idaho with a bachelor of science degree in interdisciplinary studies, a minor in English, and a certificate in TESOL (teaching English as a second language).
My journey began in 2015 when I attended an informational meeting at our stake center. I learned about BYU–Pathway Worldwide, which makes it possible to get a low-cost degree online, and I left with a grin from ear to ear and a dream taking shape. This was something I could do. Even though I had little knowledge of the computer and what online school actually entailed, I was determined to try.
My husband and I have five children, and all of them had graduated from college. Now it was my turn.
I managed a small hair salon in Ashland, Oregon, for 40 years and was taking care of my elderly mother with dementia. BYU–Pathway Worldwide was my answer for an affordable college degree and the beginnings of my next step into the future of work and volunteer service.
I started this treacherous but triumphant time with three terms of online classes, including weekly gatherings in person at the Church meetinghouse. There I learned the basics of college classes—English, math, and study skills—to prepare me for my online degree program from BYU–Idaho.
Weekly and sometimes daily, there were tears of frustration at the computer skills I needed but hadn’t yet acquired. Friends and family came to my aid and spent hours trying to help me be successful each semester. Many times during my studies, I wanted to quit. But Heavenly Father, friends, family, my teachers, and my own perseverance pushed me along. Each year of courses passed by as I pushed ahead, all the while traveling to see our grandchildren. The internet was slow on some of those trips, but I completed the courses each semester.
Six years after I started the program, I attended BYU–Idaho’s commencement ceremony, where I received my hard-earned diploma in person so that my siblings, children, and grandchildren could be there. I felt immense gratitude and happiness as I saw them all there. I could not have completed the program without their support. Proudly I walked across the stage knowing that I accomplished a dream and gained a new set of skills for whatever came next in my life.
Retiring from work, I entered a new phase in life to serve and volunteer wherever my skills were needed. My husband felt the same and wanted to use his skills as we embarked on a new journey of the great unknown: retirement and how to spend our time. We wanted to retire to give service, not just retire.
The motto of Brigham Young University in Provo is “Enter to learn; go forth to serve.” This inspired my husband and me to serve a senior mission. We are now serving as YSA specialists in the Sweden Stockholm Mission. We are volunteering in the community, maintaining missionary apartments, meeting weekly with young single adults for home evenings, taking them to the temple, and teaching English (my TESOL certificate is a blessing here).
As we retired, my husband and I wanted to serve and volunteer wherever our skills were needed. We are now serving as YSA specialists in the Sweden Stockholm Mission.
My education journey gave me a new sense of accomplishment in my 60s that I never realized would happen. The schooling has given me the perseverance to finish what I started. I look forward to whatever comes next and wonder where my learning and service will take me.
The author is from Oregon.