With Thanks to W.T. Pooh

It's a blustery day, and if I look at the Sound out the window, I get seasick. The waves are raucous and bouncy, making the idea of being on the water in any kind of small boat a nasty proposition. That also means that it's too windy to sit outside and study.

So, Ralph Waldo Emerson and I are stuck inside. Waldo (who went by his middle name, according to friends) would have preferred reading and writing outdoors, if I understand him correctly. However, both of us must adapt to circumstances. One of those circumstances is that the Internet connection keeps going away and coming back. Waldo would have had a lot to say about that.

As it is, he would have been astounded that a woman like myself was trying to become an American scholar. And he would have needed to sit down and perhaps called for the smelling salts if he had heard of Hazel Soares. At 94 years old, Ms. Soares is the second-oldest person in the world to have graduated from college, according to an Associated Press story that ran in the papers last weekend. She took home a diploma in art history from Mills College, in Oakland, CA. By the way, the very oldest person to graduate from college, 98-year-old Nola Ochs, followed that feat up by receiving her master's degree last Saturday at a Kansas college.

Those two bits of information have settled a couple of things for me. No matter how long it takes, I am still headed for that PhD. in something, probably philosophy. If that takes seven years on top of the B.A. and the M.A., so be it.

And if anyone tells me, "Oh, I'm too old to go back to school," I'll dig this article about these inspiring nonagenarians out of my backpack and wave it in front of their faces. Age cannot be an excuse, because it is certainly not a reason. If you can still think and still learn, you can still do this.

Now if I could only convince the folks that authorize grants and fellowships . . .