Part of what knits humanity together is the common ground of our shared experiences. It is on this common ground that we build our relationships. My job at Granite State College in New Hampshire places me at a crossroads where I meet people who are going through many of the same learning and life experiences I had as a student and I have the opportunity to share a bit of what I learned, hopefully making it easier for the students.
Recently, a new student came to the Concord NH office for a meeting with her adviser and to register for her first classes. She didn't come alone. This student was accompanied by her father - and her one-year-old twins! Her dad would care for the children while she attended to the business beginning her journey towards a degree.
As we talked, I learned her twins were preemies, born months too early. She was surprised to learn that I, too, had a preemie - 35 years ago! - and that my preemie would soon be making me a grandmother for the first time! Our conversation went off the adult college education track, veering over to the "mommy track," as we compared our experiences. How early did our babies arrive? How much did they weigh at birth? How long were they in the hospital?
She asked me if I had had a hard time finding clothes for my preemie, did it take long for my daughter to catch up developmentally to the children in her age group. I told her how in the beginning the hospital took surgical masks and cut them in two to use for diapers. On the wall in my office, she could see visible proof, my daughter's recent photo, that babies born as tiny as hers grow up to be perfectly normal adults with perfectly normal lives.
And I, the experienced, older of the two, learned something from her that I hadn't known before. While identical twins come from the same egg, they each have their own amniotic sac. Well, almost all of them do. This student's twins actually shared an amniotic sac which put them in the category of the rarest of identical twin births!
College is so much more than book learning. It is "life learning." In telling our stories we not only share a piece of ourselves, we pass on the benefit of our experiences and in the process make our lives and the lives of those we interact with richer by far.
Recently, a new student came to the Concord NH office for a meeting with her adviser and to register for her first classes. She didn't come alone. This student was accompanied by her father - and her one-year-old twins! Her dad would care for the children while she attended to the business beginning her journey towards a degree.
As we talked, I learned her twins were preemies, born months too early. She was surprised to learn that I, too, had a preemie - 35 years ago! - and that my preemie would soon be making me a grandmother for the first time! Our conversation went off the adult college education track, veering over to the "mommy track," as we compared our experiences. How early did our babies arrive? How much did they weigh at birth? How long were they in the hospital?
She asked me if I had had a hard time finding clothes for my preemie, did it take long for my daughter to catch up developmentally to the children in her age group. I told her how in the beginning the hospital took surgical masks and cut them in two to use for diapers. On the wall in my office, she could see visible proof, my daughter's recent photo, that babies born as tiny as hers grow up to be perfectly normal adults with perfectly normal lives.
And I, the experienced, older of the two, learned something from her that I hadn't known before. While identical twins come from the same egg, they each have their own amniotic sac. Well, almost all of them do. This student's twins actually shared an amniotic sac which put them in the category of the rarest of identical twin births!
College is so much more than book learning. It is "life learning." In telling our stories we not only share a piece of ourselves, we pass on the benefit of our experiences and in the process make our lives and the lives of those we interact with richer by far.
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