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INTRODUCTION:
“The delight of opening a new pursuit...imparts the vivacity and novelty of youth, even to old age.”
Isaac D’Israeli, The Literary Character (1795).
“Well,” said young Sean Sheehan, “I’m sick and tired of being on the dole! And I’m too old to do what I’d really like to do!”
We had started up the conversation in a small café. I’d just been for my daily three mile walk and had called into the café for a refresher before heading off to the college campus to fine tune the lesson plan for my afternoon English class.
The place was pretty crowded, so I selected a small table near the entrance, which was occupied by a bearded young man who nodded when I asked if the other chair was free.
We soon got into a conversation during which he told me that he was unemployed, despite a campaign of active job searching. He went on to say that he had worked as a labourer until about six months back and has since found that his lack of any marketable work skills was proving to be a depressing disadvantage. He expressed an ambition to go to university to study for a business degree (“I always did well in bookkeeping at school, but didn't have a tertiary entrance qualification when I left school at the end of four years in high school”), but…(and this is where YOU came in).
“Why don’t you look into the prospect of mature age entrance?” I suggested.
“I reckon I’m too old to start anything like that now,” he sighed.
I emitted a good-natured laugh and said, “at the risk of handing you a well-worn cliché let me assure you that ‘you’re NEVER too old’. “
“Yeah!” Sean exclaimed with a tinge of bitterness creeping through; “yeah! You can say that. You probably had the opportunity to become a teacher at a young age and with the help of parents. Here am I: hitting thirty years old and never had the opportunity after leaving school to get trained in anything that today’s employers seem to want.”
“All right,” I said, “I won’t go into why you didn’t LOOK for the opportunity after you left school. However, let me tell you two things: first, Yes, I DID have opportunities to train for any career I wanted after I left school, but I squandered them.”
Sean said nothing, but indicated by his facial expression that he wanted to hear more. I continued.
“Second, I didn’t start my university studies until middle age, by which time I had developed enough maturity to allow me to make some decisions that changed my life for the better.”
Sean seemed a little bit taken aback by my reply and then asked, “Would you mind telling me about it?”
“OK,” I replied, “you asked for it!”
And then I selected the parts of my life history relevant to Sean’s dilemma and shared them with this confused and dispirited young man.
“In 1974 at the age of fifty I decided to escape from the commercial world into the world of Academia.
“First, I applied for a job in the Australian Public Service (APS), mainly because of its generous provision for study leave. I landed one with the Commonwealth Employment Service as an Employment Officer in 1974.
“Then, in 1975 I commenced as a part-time student in a BA (English) program, which I converted to full-time in 1976 after resigning from the APS.
“From thereon I supported myself as a free-lance musician and actor and graduated in 1980. After that I completed a graduate Diploma with a major in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL).
“These qualifications led me into classrooms in three Australian states, in Italy and in China where I happily taught in such varied situations as migrant education programs; English as a foreign language to speakers of other languages in their home countries; teachers’ colleges and language centres in universities etc.
“All these activities were possible because I was, at that time, free of all marital ties. However, my single status was to change as a result of a teaching assignment in China during 1988-89.
“After my return to Australia from China in 1989 I kept in contact with a Chinese teacher with whom I had developed close ties during my teaching assignment. She joined me in Australia in 1989 and we were married early in 1990. We now have a handsome son who celebrated his fifth (yes, fifth!) birthday on April 18 this year.
“My wife has been working with a firm of local accountants for the last five years. Last year she completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree and her future as an accountant looks very bright indeed. Our son is developing into an interesting and personable human being.
“I will be seventy-nine next birthday and my wife wants me to “take it easy” by going into retirement. I tell her that I will retire when I am accorded that wonderful retirement celebration known as ‘The Funeral Service’. I still teach: I have contracts with a regional further education college (to migrants) and with the regional Ministry of Justice (to foreign prisoners in a prison). I also work as resident musician at a local venue –the restaurant in a very busy motel.
“So, my decision to leave the world of bottom lines and sales targets has paid off.
“Admittedly, my material wealth would have been greater had I stayed put all those years ago, but I am (I know) immeasurably richer in personal growth, inner peace and maturity for having changed the itinerary of my life’s journey.”
Sean listened with growing interest to this story in silence. When I had finished he shook my hand and then said, “Well, I have to go now, but thanks for telling me your story; it has certainly given me a lot of food for thought.”
He rose from his chair, gave me a strong, warm smile and walked towards the exit. He didn’t look back.
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