Photo: Kevin Horton (right) with fellow MALS student Melisa Wright at a recent academic awards ceremony at SUNY Old Westbury
An “old guys” graduation swan song as a MALS Student at SUNY Old Westbury.
After, (gulp) thirty years “in the real world,” I returned to school as a student in pursuit of a masters in English Literature and Writing Education. I started this journey with much resistance and apprehension. I pictured myself in the back of a classroom among students literally half my age, sweating over academic tests, wondering how to dress and how’d I’d even find the classrooms. I thought of having to be beholden to professors, thinking they’d make me feel out of place and question my abilities… heck, I was questioning them myself.
The thought of returning to school started a few years ago as my colleagues politely encouraged me to “just take a few classes, get started.” Showing respect to them I’d consider the suggestion… for exactly a nano-second, before my inner (perhaps inner child) voice would scream, “That’s just crazy! You as a student again?!, You’re too old for that—you need a cane, that’s what you need, you need a cane—you’re THAT old!”
In truth, I don’t actually consider myself an “old guy.” I’m still active for my age (OMG, did I just use that phrase?) I still enjoy hiking, biking, tennis, sailing, and driving fast cars (with my blinker OFF thank you!)… However, the idea of being a college student again (with my classmates the same age as my own children) frightened me to no end. It was a big leap, after, again, gulp, 30 years… But, yup, as you might have guessed, I finally enrolled (around COVID) and in-the-blink-of-an-eye, it’s done! And wow! I have to admit, it was a great adventure and one of the best things I’ve done.
As an undergraduate, way back in 1991, I enjoyed my college years at New York Institute of Technology where I received my degree in Communication Arts. At NYIT I was editor of the Campus Slate, the student-run school newspaper. Loving that experience, I decided upon graduation to start my own weekly newspaper. Enlisting the help of my mother, who was an accomplished journalist, we started the publication, the Gold Coast Gazette, in September of 1991. Long story short: it was a great, successful (sometimes strange) endeavor that I enjoyed for 25 years until I sold the publication to a large newspaper chain in 2016.
Three years before selling the newspaper, in 2013, I had the opportunity to return to NYIT in the Communication Arts Department as an adjunct professor where I taught classes including Journalism 101, News Video Production, and a conspiracy theory class I developed myself. Eventually, the lore of the possibility of more classes in other departments arose, and the voices of my colleagues persisted as they noted that a master’s degree would be beneficial in my new teaching career. “Just take a few classes,” they said… which, again, I considered for a nano-second, till the inner voice wailed, “it’s too late… you’re too…”
But then the pandemic hit and I gained a better perspective of time and more importantly, of time wasted. In the Spring of 2021, I was able to squash those self-doubting voices, and long story short, I applied and was accepted!
My first two classes were both on Zoom, (because of Covid), but I was okay with that… it took away my apprehension of being the old guy in the physical classroom… and now, here I am, long story short and in the blink of an eye (they say that life moves faster when you’re older, maybe that’s why it seems to have gone so fast), I’m graduating from the MALS program with a Masters in English Literature and Writing Education.
So, as I conclude this old guy swan song, I want to take this opportunity to thank the many people who helped make this journey a reality. First, thank you to all my fellow students who accepted the old guy in the classroom (and even into their GroupMe chats). OW has an amazing group of students who will impact the world in a positive and productive way.
I’d also like to thank all the amazing instructors at OW who taught me not only academics but techniques of teaching which will come in handy going back as a professor myself. Among those who were special is Professor Friedman, who accepted me onto the Catalyst staff. Being back writing stories for a student-run newspaper was certainly a blast and an experience I will cherish. The Catalyst staff also was welcoming and supportive and I believe that through these students, under the guidance of Prof. Friedman, journalism is alive and well.
I’d also like to thank my academic advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. Carol Quirke for the amazing support and guidance throughout this journey. Dr. Quirke was the first person I spoke to as a student at OW and through that conversation, I knew I was welcome. Dr. Quirke was available and supportive throughout my entire journey, and she helped push me to go beyond my comfort zone and complete this task.
A big thank you also goes to my supportive family. My two children who are both current college students themselves, one in a master’s program, and one working on a Ph.D. They have been an inspiration and encouragement as they shared their academic life with their father. They each good-naturedly answered my questions as I navigated being a student again all these years later. They made the journey fun as we pulled all-nighters together drinking coffee and hashing out essays.
My wife encouraged me to go for this master’s and endured my strange sleep patterns, fed me while I sat at my computer, and continued, as always, to keep me young.
And ultimately to those academic colleagues, particularly Dr. Elaine Brown, Loraine Lazarus, and John Hanc, who persisted and continued to strongly suggest that I wasn’t too old and that I should go for it… Well, you were all right! Indeed, in the blink of an eye, I’m done!
