Maybe it would have been a little more dramatic if it had happened in a movie, Suzan Clemens says.
Maybe the heavens would have parted. Maybe the music would have swelled. After all, thats what happens on the big screen when those big, life-changing moments come down, right?
Oh, yeahtheres always a chase scene and fireball explosion, too.
It wasnt like that at all when Clemensmoment came in real life. It was more of a casual, matter-of-fact kind of thing, actually. It was five little words, in one simple statement, uttered 15 years ago by her boss at the time:You need to do this.
And those words made all the difference for the Morgantown woman who will don her daughters cap and gown Sunday to take a degree from West Virginia University.
Clemens, 52, will receive a Board of Regents Bachelor of Arts degree, orBORBA,as its commonly known on campus. Thats the WVU degree offering that translates life experience into college credit.
Hers has an emphasis on psychology and womens studies, befitting in part her past work as a counselor at the West Virginia Family Grief Center.
But first, some backstory, as the movie types say: The intellectual side of college never gave her any grief. She originally wanted to be an English teacher, and she immediately enrolled in WVU after her 1972 graduation from University High School, intent on doing just that.
But like a lot ofnontraditionalcollege studentsthose book-toters 25 years of age or oldercircumstances simply got in the way.
Nagging health problems in her freshman year forced her to drop out for a time. She dropped back in, but when she got married, she dropped out again to go to work.
Her babies came along, right on maternal schedule. The daughters were first. Erin, the eldest, is 26, and Randi is 24. Sons Matthew and Nathan are 21 and 19, respectively.
As she juggled work and the home-schooling of all four of her kids, she took classes whenever she could, with her purse under one arm and a textbook under the other.
Her youngest, Nathan, was 8 when the marriage ended in divorce. And while shes quick to say she doesnt want to make more of that than it was, the divorce was difficultand she was left as a single mom with four young children to support.
She soldiered on.
Thats just how it was,she said.I didnt want to waste time being bitter. I studied in my car and dozed off at their soccer games. When youre tired and you feel at the bottom and one of your kids says, �€~Mom, Im hungry,you just do what you have to do.
The one thing she had to do, but wasnt able, was complete her degree. Fast-forward to 1992, and the Campus Ministry Center, where she was employed as a bookkeeper. Everyone who knew her knew how hard she was working for her family. And they knew of her desire for a degree.
The Rev. Charles Spring, the centers Presbyterian administrator, completely skipped the preamble. He summed up her academic aspirations perfectly, with those aforementioned five words.
I had made a couple of stabs at college by then,she said.I had the whole �€~I cant do this becauselitany: No money, no time, too many kids. Rev. Spring made it sound like a mandate: �€~You need to do this.And he was right. It was time.
The clergyman even called the Regents program director and rearranged Clemenswork schedule to accommodate her classes.
It still wasnt easy, even with the blessing of her boss. And she would eventually leave the center (on good terms) to move to another job that was even more demanding, as a blood donor representative with the American Red Cross.
But with her children now grown, she was finally able to re-enroll in earnest two years ago.
Coming back for good at this age has been the most incredible experience,she said.It brings a depth I dont think I could have had in 1972. I can put all this stuff into perspective, now. Its like, �€~Oh, thats how that works.”
Her perspective has broadened in other ways, too, she said. Shes a proud mom who watched her children grow into adulthood. She wants to eventually become a clinical psychologist, and her second daughter, Randi, is now a social worker in Ohio.
Shell be my peer,Clemens said.
Randi graduated in December from WVU and handed down her cap and gown to her mom for Sundays ceremony.
Clemens has since remarried, and with her husband, Jim Hatcher, and all four children cheering her on today, her movie is insured of having a happy ending.
Theres even a sequel in the works:Ive applied to grad school,she said.The adventure continues.