I went to Canada Employment and asked what kind of programs they had. I couldn't get a student loan because I still had some money in RRSPs. I said "I'm 46 years old, I've got $4,000 in an RRSP, it's all I've got to my name." When I told them I had that they said, "You spend every dime of that, then we'll talk about student loans. " So much for being honest, eh? Friends of mine said you didn't have to tell them that. God, how can I be so old and so naive all at once?

I went to BCIT and said, "I'm 46 years old and I've got two years of university. I haven't had a math course since Dwight Eisenhower was president of the United States." They said, "Listen honey, you're wonderful, we're going to give you six months of math upgrading and then you can go to BCIT for two years solid and you will get a technical diploma. " I said okay.

Then I went to Langara and they said, "We give you an entrance exam and if you pass that exam you ought to be able to handle our math course. " So I got a friend's algebra book. Over the summer I had my nose in an algebra book and you know; this was the new math and I didn't even know what the words were. I mean, my son took new math but I didn't pay much attention. Anyway, I passed their test and they said, "Hey, you're in." So I decided I'm going to go to Langara and get a technical diploma.

When that math course came around, you were supposed to have calculus as a prerequisite. Only the computer students didn't have to have calculus to get into that math course!

I went to the head of the department and said, "This is outrageous. You promised me when I started your program that if I passed your test I would be able to handle this math course and there is no way in the world that I can do it." He said "How about tutoring," and I said "Not even the best tutor in the world could get me through this course. I am not going to take that course over, I am not going to settle for a tutor; as far as I am concerned I should have been able to handle it, but I can't handle it and my other course load."

I knew from looking at BCIT bulletins about evening courses in FORTRAN (a mathematical language). Both the schools used FORTRAN, but the one at the school where I was going was incredibly difficult and the one at BCIT was an introductory course which didn't require you to know a whole lot when you started and didn't require you to learn a lot of mathematics. It just taught you that language that is used for all the fancy damn math.

He didn't want to do it, but I would not go away. He knew that I had formally complained about an instructor in the English department, and that I would not shut up. I said, "Let me take the course at BCIT as a replacement for this. It's not going to be any skin off your nose, and I'll be able to graduate when I expected." So I made a good case for him to substitute and he did.

By then, this was my fifth term, I had been around long enough to know that there's many things you can't get around at that college, but certain things you can. I was glad I was middle-aged or I could never have survived the Computer Information Systems Program.

If somebody tells you on the basis of a test that you should be able to get through a course, and you can't. . . if somebody has been teaching there for twenty years and when people don't understand he raises his voice and screams at them. . . I knew I didn't have to put up with it without making a stink. I had high standards and I wanted to get my money's worth.