Achieving My Lifelong Dream

All my life I had wanted to gain a degree, but having special needs children took up all my time, and the years passed by so quickly. Every so often I would catch myelf looking at university courses but to no avail. Don't get me wrong I loved all my children, and I never regretted having a large family. I felt blessed that I had such beautiful children.But a part of me knew I had so much potential and I had always loved studying. I read everything I could on my interests. I was still determined that one day I would do it and it is this that kept me going when trying to deal with the day to day demands of special children.

Friends were forever telling me to go for it and I said to them I would. In the end they gave up and life carried on. At this time I was living in the Uk where I was born. My children grew up and I felt too old to even think about doing something about it. My husband at the time became ill so I cared for him until his death. By this time I was 50 and started to fall into depression I barely made it through each day. I knew I couldnt go on this way and started to pull myself out of it to take control back of my life, which wasn't easy but it needed to be done. My friends started asking me to go out with them again and I started looking towards the future again, and was beginning to feel more like my old self again.

Fast forward to 2019 where I was now living in Wellington New Zealand and I happened to be talking to my now husband and he said to me why dont you go to university? He said he would support me in any way he could. At first I said at 60 I was way too old to study, plus I have chronic illnesses. But every now and again he would bring the subject up. So in July 2019 I started at Victoria University of Wellington. The week before starting I was petrified. How would I get on with all the younger students? I hadn't studied for many years, how would I cope? And on and on I went.I realised that I was suffering with imposter syndrome, but I had to try I might even surprise myself.

The day dawned and off I went. I had decided to do a BA in Philosophy as I had always been interested in the subject. I was also able to take electives in other subjects which I was glad to do. I had always enjoyed variety in subjects. The students and lecturers were really friendly and I soon settled in. Doing my first assignment was nervewracking but I did better than I expected. Things were going well until the pandemic. We were put into lockdown so no more in-person classes which to myself and many of my fellow students was a nightmare from which there was no escape. I did much better with others so I was worried my grades would slip. But there was nothing any of us could do so we just did the best we could and I was doing well. Online classes carried on until the end of 2021.

I got used to it however and stated to enjoy being at home. I studied over the summer and in May 2022 I wa awarded a BA in Philosophy. I was so proud of what I achieved at 63 years old. All the students that studied during Covid 19 were amazing and I made some lovely friends. To anyone who has a dream just go for it you can do it. I did and you can too!

Alexis Mundy

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took over caring for him until his death when I was 50..

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could on many different subjects in the spare time I had