Emeritus

          I love to write and I have been looking for writing classes for a long time. One day, I was checking on SMC College’s Web Site, and then I saw there was an Emeritus College, which I hadn’t seen before. I was curious about it, so I clicked the link, it took me to the Emeritus home page. I was so amazed that on the Emeritus College home page, I saw an autobiography class there. I was so happy that I finally had found a class, which I really wanted to take. I was worried about the class being full, so I printed the online registration form and filled in the form. The next day I mailed it to Emeritus College. A few days later, I went to China.

When I was in China, I was often checked my answering machine to see if there were any important calls. One day I heard someone’s shaky voice on my answering machine. Because of the shaky voice, I hardly heard it completely. I had to listen three times just to understand what she was taking about. “Guangyu, your registration form was sent to Emeritus College too early and we can’t accept it. Please come to pick up the form and mail it again by the required date.” I wondered why they had hired someone with that voice to be a secretary or if my phone had some problem. I was in China, so of course I couldn’t pick up the form, but I sent an email to them and I said that I was in China, asking if they would re-enter this form for me. I would be very appreciative. Then I forgot about the class.

When I came back from China. I saw lot of mail. When I saw Emeritus College’s confirmation form I couldn’t express my happiness. They really re-entered the form for me. I am so proud of myself to be an Emeritus College student now.

Sep 1^st, 2001, I can never forget this day, because I became an Emeritus College student. I prepared my notebook and pen. Then I followed the address they sent to me, and drove to the school. When I walked into the class, I found a seat. Normally I like to sit in front of the class but on that day the class was full of men and women and I could only sit at the back of the room. After I was seated I looked at the class and wondered, “What is this class? Did I enter the wrong room? Why are all those students older than me?” I jumped up, and went out of the room and checked the room number one more time. It was true this was room number 255. So I went to the room again. People in the class all turned their heads and looked at me as if I were a soldier marching on the hills. Then two women and one man walked toward me. One of the ladies said, “Which class are you taking?’ I showed the confirmation form to them. They were taking turns checking an each letter on the paper and then said together, “ Yeah, this is the class for her.” Then came another Chinese lady, she said to me, “Do you speak Chinese?” I said, “Yes.” Then she said, “This is Emeritus school, are you really signing up for the class?” She said everything in Chinese but only “Emeritus School” in English. I said, “Yes, I know.” Then she walked away.

This is a really good class. In front of class there is a table and a microphone People can go over there, sit and read their own stories. A man read a story about World War II. He suffered a lot in World War II, and the whole class couldn’t stop crying. I said to myself, “Wow, this World War II story is very good history for me.”  When a lady was talking about the story of her granddaughter, the whole class could’t stop laughing and clapping. I joined in. One lady is ninety something years old. She wanted to read her story but her voice was so shaky and she could only read a couple of sentences and she couldn’t stop coughing, so she said to the class, “Is there anyone who can volunteer to read my story”? A man volunteered for her. He said, “She is ninety-seven, I am eighty-six”.  It is so cool.  Sometimes the teacher would ask students to repeat their reading, “ My name is Mary. My name is Mary. The title of my story is … The title of my story is …” It is awesome!

  When class was over, I went to SMC College to meet my computer teacher, Gina.  I told Gina that I had a great time in the class that morning. She said, “Which one?” I told her, “Emeritus College.”  She opened her eyes wide, “Do you know what Emeritus means?” I said, “Yes, the name of college.” She couldn’t stop her laughing. She told me the meaning of Emeritus and she said, “You are the baby there.”

One day I met the instructor, Mary Jane Roberts, on the street. She said to me, “You are not old enough to come to this class.” I smiled at her. She knows that smile came from my heart.

I love this class.