Sharon Griffin | Contributing Writer
Being a full-time stay at home mother until the age of 28 never dispelled my interest in Russia and the Russian language. Due to familial ties with the country, I decided to take up the language as a hobby around the age of 50. My interest in the language grew and I contacted the Russian Department in Trinity in the hope of partaking in one of their night time courses. Ultimately, this didn’t suit, so I re-thought the whole thing and investigated applying to become a full-time mature student. Hopefully I can outline to people the highs and lows of life as a mature student as I am now in my second year in Trinity College, studying Russian and French. Thankfully I have many more positive things to relate than negative, but there are also pitfalls, which in hindsight I could have avoided.
Having applied and been interviewed by both the Russian and French department, I was both lucky and very grateful to be accepted onto the T.S.M. course. It was going to be quite a challenge as I had actually sat my Leaving Certificate in 1977. However, I felt I was looking forward to the challenge and I was absolutely delighted to be accepted.
A week before college began I was called in with all of the other mature students for an Orientation week. I had hoped to get to know people during this week, but it didn’t really materialise that way. Despite showing up every day I would have to say that unfortunately it wasn’t a very beneficial use of our time. People from various societies came to speak to us, including a member of the Mature Student Society who told us different things that were available to us as mature students. We were taken around a large part of the college on a guided tour but here is where the problem lay. We were taken to the library and told a lot of information which was all too much to take in at the time. We were shown a machine and told something vague about putting money in to have credit for your photocopying. The problem was the fact that we were shown all of these things from a distance and we were given no opportunity to physically attempt them ourselves. Consequently, when we went to use these things at a later date, there was a lot of fumbling around and botched attempts at using them. We were taken to the Sports Centre and spent a lot of time there, looking at the facilities, which perhaps may have been useful for some people but not for me. On one of the days of the orienteering week, they were kind enough to put on a lunch for everyone. This was actually great, because it meant you could sit with people, get to know them, find out what they were studying and just generally acquaint yourself with other mature students.
The problem was the fact that we were shown all of these things from a distance and we were given no opportunity to physically attempt them ourselves. Consequently, when we went to use these things at a later date, there was a lot of fumbling around and botched attempts at using them.
There was a small cohort of mature students within the main body who had all come through an access course together, and that for them was great, as they already knew each other. That being said, they certainly didn’t exclude anyone else. The mature students were very wide ranging in age, I’m guessing from the people in their 20’s to people in their 70’s. My feeling is that this Orientation week would have been better spent if we could have used the time that week to physically try out things for ourselves, like logging onto computers, printers, copying, scanning etc. I feel this would have made the transition much easier. Fortunately for me I have sons in their twenties who could help out with those problems at home, but other mature students may not have that. However that is one of the few criticisms I would have.
Moving on to the positive, in both French and Russian I appear to be one of the few – if not the only – mature student in both departments. This initially proved for me to be a huge disadvantage coupled with the fact that there were problems with timetables the year I started so I always seemed to be unclear as to where I was supposed to be. Naturally, all the young people were getting to know each other and also they too were busy finding their way around which meant I had to figure out a lot on my own. I do think the people who came through the access course together found that part easier. However that being said; I can report only good things about both my fellow students and my Professor’s and/or teaching assistants. They have been superb, without exception.
After an initial slow start and lots of mistakes I got my bearings. I asked for help from both the academic staff and my fellow students. The academic staff could not have been more helpful. No matter what it was they helped every time, including flagging things I should be watching out for. The Professors took a special interest and that really helped. The secretaries in both departments were always interested in what I was doing and offering help where it was needed, along with friendly chats. Both the Russian and French departments were fantastic to me.
I can report only good things about both my fellow students and my Professor’s and/or teaching assistants. They have been superb, without exception.
At this point I should say the same of the other staff in the college, especially the women in the Arts Cafe and the Cloakroom. They are always up for a friendly chat.
With regard to the other students as I got to know all of them everything fell into place. I tried not to bother them with too many questions, but often when they would see that I was a bit overwhelmed they would offer their assistance which was most welcome. They did things like coming to the C.L.C.S. room with me to show how everything worked and I especially remember one day when I was totally overwhelmed by copying sound files, a German guy in my class, sitting beside me just whispered over to me “give me your memory stick”. I gave it to him and he handed it back a minute later saying “that’s done now”. We all know who he is. They progressed from helping me, to including me on their trips across the road for lunch, to emailing me reminders of things I needed reminding about and through their inclusiveness I settled comfortably into the course.
I am currently motoring along, without too many problems, thanks to the support of the staff and students. In conclusion I would say it is something that I would hugely recommend for anyone who is prepared to go through the initial hard times. It has been a huge and dramatic change at my age. I come to college every day, I bought a monthly bus ticket for the first time in a hundred years and I now know my way around the computer fairly well. I am frequently exhausted, but that’s okay because I am lucky enough to love both of my courses. I am filled with admiration at how versatile, generous and talented these students are. I look forward to the day when I will see them doing great things and I will be able to say, “Yes he/she was one of my college buddies”.
Illustration by Stephen Lehane
