Strangers with Candy, take two

Some days I don't notice that I am not just like the rest of you. I drag myself out of bed. I go to class. I get bored and doodle or nod off. Other times, my outsider status slaps me in the face multiple times in one day. \nSo what makes me so different? Let me introduce myself. Jeanne Wilson, the world's only thirty-year-old, full-time undergrad. Now before all the other older students on campus (all ten of you) write in to point out how un-unique I really am, let me say that I meet a few older students every semester. But I have yet to encounter anyone who, like myself, has chosen complete immersion in the whole "my life as Strangers With Candy episode" experience that is attending college full time as an "adult." \nI'm perpetually a fish outta water here, these days. Want some examples? Here are a few of my favorites:\n-The professor who skipped through lecture details by saying things like "Now, you'll remember the formation of the mitotic spindle from your high school biology class, so, moving on…." I was always tempted to raise my hand and say "Lady, I graduated from high school in 1989. All I remember is how to make my bangs really big and the words to Pour Some Sugar on Me."\n-Or the girl I work with at the IDS, who responded "What, are you thirty or something?" when I told her I was simply "old" on my birthday. \n -And lets not forget every older student's favorite, the AI you could have baby-sat for. Although I am pretty much desensitized to this one, my first few semesters here I was freaked by the idea that some kid in a Dave Matthews T-shirt could be in a position of passing informed judgement upon me. \nI've learned to blend in, though. I have the requisite collegiate wardrobe. I have a circle of friends that can't always get together because someone's fake ID got declined. I carry a backpack instead of a purse. I drive too fast with the music cranked too loud. (Although, actually, I have always done that and probably always will.) And I can function on about an hour and a half of sleep. \nBut I also have, if you look closely, (really closely, I hope) more wrinkles around my eyes than the average female undergrad. Free advice; turns out all those warnings about sun damage are actually more than just ploys to sell self-tanner. And I have some time in the "real world" to my credit. I've worked full time, been both employee and boss. I've lived all over. I've been married, and now, divorced. More free advice, if anyone suggests that you quit college to marry them and "finish school up later" I strongly urge you to postpone the wedding, not the graduation.\nMy approach to this whole college gig is tempered by a few years of life experience that a lot of you don't have yet. That's the difference between you and me. Different perspectives, maybe, but the same goal, a diploma.\nAnd pursuit of our common goal means that I have to endure some mortifying "age gaps" from time to time. But it also means that I am, temporarily on vacation from the world of mortgages and 401K's and ten days of vacation a year. In this world I can sleep late, hit a few classes then go out dancing until 3:30 am, all on a Tuesday. In short, I can indulge in all sorts of fun behavior that is generally eschewed by the thirty-anything world. I think it's a fair trade off.