Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: Finishing (the verb, not the adjective) school

Skip to comments

Mike Peterson Published: November 25, 2010 1 minute 3 comments

Sandra Bell Lundy's "Between Friends" is often autobiographical, at least to the extent of reflecting what's on her mind. But occasionally it also reflects what's going on in her life, and the current arc as Kim ponders a return to college is something she is also doing.

I'm very supportive of this, in large part because I think you ought to leave as few things unresolved in life as possible. I left college after my junior year in order to write and also to figure out why I was there in the first place.

My grandfather's reaction was very supportive and unsurprised, since he realized I was kind of drifting anyway, and he noted a fellow who had been in his outfit in the army who was there because he'd gotten all the way through college and law school, hung out his shingle and realized he didn't want to be a lawyer.

However, he was equally supportive of my pledge to go back and finish after a year or two in the real world because, he said, he had known too many people who spent a great deal more time and effort explaining why they hadn't finished their degrees than they would have by simply finishing them.

My grandfather was a pretty wise person.

Specifically, I support women going back because a number of years ago, and that number is 22, I dated a woman who had amassed a mosaic of rapidly-expiring or expired credits at various schools all located near air force bases, and now had decided to go back and actually get a degree. She enrolled at Smith, which has a fellowship program for non-traditional students and, for the next four years, I got to meet a lot of interesting women who, for one reason or another, had that blank in their resume and a desire to fill it in.

(This is my father's sketch of a Smithie, done when he was an undergraduate at MIT and before he met my mother, who went to, and graduated from, a different girls' school which was located slightly upriver from him.)

Meanwhile, while she was working away at the books, I had the pleasure, at nearly-40, of being able to say, "I'm taking off for the weekend. I'm going to go see my girlfriend. She's a sophomore at Smith."

It never grew old. And neither did she, though today is her birthday. Happy Birthday, Mrs. Calabash, BA, wherever you are!

(Actually, I know where she is, but hope she's too busy enjoying the holiday to take a phone call from an old beau. Perhaps I'll drop her a birthday email. And I'm thankful today that Sandra is Canadian and so provided a cartoon that didn't feature a live turkey sitting at the dinner table with a family that proved too tender-hearted to kill it.)