SLIDESHOW: Weber State University's 2010 graduation commencement ceremony
OGDEN -- After spending 14 years earning a bachelor's degree, most people would heave a sigh of relief and look forward to receiving their diploma.
Not Carolyn Morrison. The 74-year-old received her arts diploma at Weber State University on Friday.
She said Thursday that earning the diploma was hard, but receiving it may be difficult as well.
"I think it's going to be hard for me," she said. "I'm not really looking forward to it. I'm a lifelong learner."
Morrison was one of the 2,314 graduates who received diplomas during commencement ceremonies Friday at the university. This year's graduation was held a week earlier than in years past because of a change in the academic calendar.
Honorary degrees were awarded during the ceremony to Leola L. Davidson, Nancy L. Davidson, Carol Watkins Hurst and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Thomas S. Monson.
The 2010 WSU Presidential Distinguished Professors also were honored: zoology professor John Cavitt, psychology professor Lauren Fowler and chemistry professor Edward Walker.
Student graduate speaker Matthew Warner, of Syracuse, who graduated with a master's degree in business administration, spoke to the thousands of students who attended the Friday morning celebration.
"Our lives are now our choosing," he told the graduates clad in black and purple robes. "Our degrees are of great value -- we finished."
For Morrison, that degree is even more valuable after 14 years of studying in spite of hip replacements, difficult classes and her eyesight beginning to falter.
"I've accomplished my goal," she said. "I've accomplished what I wanted for my children, to show them how important education is."
Morrison said her decision to return to school wasn't easy.
After her husband died and she was left raising seven children without even a high school diploma, she knew she needed to go back to school.
After retiring in 1996 from her job at Hill Air Force Base, she enrolled at Weber State.
"You can't take things for granted," she said. "Having a family and having a husband, you think everything will work out just fine, and it doesn't work out that way. It didn't work out that way for me. He died young.
"If I'd had an education, even a high school diploma, it would have helped. But I had my family to think of first, trying to be home and juggle what they had to do. It was really, really hard."
Morrison said she plans to continue her education. She's already planning to take a photography class this summer and wants to enroll again for fall semester.
Comments