*This one’s for all of the procrastinators — present company included! ?
94-year old, hearing-impaired grandmother of 12, Amy Craton, earned her Bachelor’s degree — and a 4.0 GPA!?
“You can’t live without knowledge!” Craton told PEOPLE magazine. ?”Education is living.” ?
Craton earned her Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and English — I’d better watch out! ?She’s?could be coming after my job! — from Southern New Hampshire University’s online program. ?SNHU’s president flew to Craton’s Hawaii home to present her with her diploma.
“I’ve always wanted to have my degree,” Craton said. ?”In the back of my mind that goal has always been there, but things get in the way, life gets in the way. ?But now I did it!”
Damn, grandma! ?Please allow me to be among the chorus of family and friends who extend a heartfelt congratulations! ?
Craton said she decided to finish what she’d started in the 1960s for one reason: ?”I like to learn!” ?She had been forced to suspend her education so she could support her four children after her divorce.
“I found myself getting older, in a chair, really not having a life or doing anything,” Craton said. ?”But I really like to learn.”
So in 2013, she began SNHU’s online program.
“Though I do hear, it was difficult making out what the professor was saying, but then I found out about the online classes,” she explained. ?”It was definitely for me.”
“I think if you have a chance to go back to school, if you’re capable of going back to school, I see no reason why you shouldn’t go back,” Craton said. ?”It keeps you living in life, being a part of life, not just withdrawing.”
Craton hopes to write a children’s book with her new degree — WHEW! My job is safe! — but she’s not done with formal education just yet. ?Right after she completed her Bachelor’s degree, she enrolled in graduate school!
“The more you know, the more you want to know, the more open your life is,” she said.
“Education gives you life.”
