Never Too Old

COVID sends 77-year-old back to school

by Frank Tilley ❧ photo by Jessica Crandlemire

Like many of my friends in Southern Georgian Bay, the COVID-19 restrictions of summer 2020 were getting me down. Before the pandemic struck, I had started a new project aimed at active Baby Boomers in this area. It had slowed to a crawl as I was unable to recruit volunteers face to face.

My wife and I were frustrated that our planned bicycle trip from Innsbruck, Austria to Verona, Italy had to be postponed. We had not been to the theatre, cinema or church since March. Most restaurants were closed. The house was closing in, I was drinking too much wine, my pants were getting too tight, and I was getting used to sleeping in. Something had to be done. Pivoting is the new buzzword my children use. I had to find something new. But what?

My last class in university was in 1966. I enjoyed the experience but had stayed away from academics with the exception of a year’s sabbatical in Geneva, Switzerland as an executive in residence at the local MBA school. I had always said I would pursue my interest in theology when I had some free time. It looked like it was now or never.

How do you make a decision like this? First, I talked with people who know me. Of course, my wife/consultant/coach had to be involved. Then I talked with my children. Friends who know me well were also consulted. We reviewed my interests and what skills I had to offer.

My work had evolved into an entrepreneurial role in setting up a foundation, but I needed discipline and external accountability. Volunteering was an option, but I knew as an employer of volunteers for many years, I need something more rigorous.

Going back to school, in the normal sense, was not an option. All the universities were shut down. It was difficult to find a live person in any institution to talk with, particularly in the middle of the summer. I was frustrated in trying to communicate only with an impersonal website.

By August, I realized time was getting short. Providentially, the brother of a friend had taken a Masters program at Tyndale University, a private Christian university in Toronto. He encouraged me and suggested I try Tyndale as well as Wycliffe College, a Christian evangelical seminary at the University of Toronto. Finally, in the last week of August, I found a very helpful voice on the phone who guided me through registration and course selection for a Masters of Theological Studies at Wycliffe. He also interceded for me, as registration had formally closed three months earlier.

Fifty-four years of absence from university left me totally unprepared for my first class. I knew nothing about the school, professors or students. Talk about being out of your depth! I was in the same class as students in their fourth year of a divinity program. As an occasional student, I did not even have a library card. Technology was challenging. I commented to a fellow student, who was one-third my age, that the last time I had submitted an assignment, it was typed on a manual typewriter. She responded, “A manual what?”

I learned that, like all industries, academics have their own jargon, which makes it difficult for the uninformed newcomer. The dictionary on my phone was used more in the first two weeks than it had been in the prior 10 years.

As all courses were online-only, traffic getting to class was not a problem, but I did not really feel part of a university until I took the step of inviting a professor out for lunch. That one face-to-face contact in Toronto helped me feel connected to the university.