Thirty Credits Short
The email sounded like hundreds of others a college adviser might receive. A woman who lived on a farm outside Jetmore, Kansas wanted information about taking classes online. Near the end, she added one small detail. “I took a course at Fort Hays a long time ago.”
The adviser searched the university’s records. Nothing appeared. She kept digging until, in the basement of the administration building, she found an old 3-by-5 card. It confirmed that Nola had taken one class at Fort Hays State University. The adviser then gathered Nola’s transcripts from the different schools she had attended and added up the credits. She was only 30 hours short of a bachelor’s degree. Thirty hours. One senior year. Close enough to imagine finishing.
The woman enrolled in online courses and did well. But with only one year remaining, she decided she wanted more than a computer screen. She wanted to be in the classroom. So she left the family farm, moved 100 miles to Hays and rented an apartment on campus. She enrolled full time, taking upper-level courses in history. She sat in the front row, took careful notes, she answered questions, studied for exams and earned a 3.7 GPA. And there was one more reason to enjoy that final year. Another member of her family was attending Fort Hays too. They even took a class together. And after a full school year they were preparing to graduate in the same commencement ceremony. On May 12, 2007, the two family members waited together in caps and gowns.
But Nola wasn’t just another student, because that 3-by-5 card discovered in the basement recorded a class she had taken during the summer of 1930. Seventy-seven years had passed between Nola’s first course at Fort Hays and her last. Those years had not been spent waiting. Nola had taught in a one-room Kansas schoolhouse until she married and her teaching certificate—valid only while she remained single—was taken away.
She and her husband raised four sons on their farm. They endured dust storms, difficult harvests and years when money was painfully tight. After 39 years of marriage, her husband died. Nola returned to school one course at a time. She earned an associate degree and continued studying at another college until it closed before she could finish her bachelor’s degree. Life interrupted her education again and again. Nola simply kept returning to it.
Now, at 95, she crossed the graduation stage beside the family member who had shared one of those classes with her. Her granddaughter, Alexandra. The governor of Kansas handed Nola her diploma, and the crowd rose to its feet for the oldest college graduate in the world. “I don’t dwell on my age,” Nola explained. “It might limit what I can do.” And she still wasn’t finished. Three years later, at 98, Nola Ochs earned her master’s degree in history.
And now you know... the rest of the story.
THE YEAR STARTS TWICE
We usually give January all the credit for new beginnings. But September has always offered another one. The buses return. The classroom doors reopen. The neighborhood falls back into a rhythm, carrying the quiet possibility that we might begin again, too.
Nola’s story reminds us that starting over—or picking up something you set down a long time ago—doesn't belong only to kids with fresh backpacks. A second beginning doesn’t care what the calendar says, or how long a dream has been sitting on a shelf. It only asks for a little curiosity, and the willingness to pull up a chair and begin again.
Some years start twice.
Some lives do too.
WHAT’S GATHERING THIS MONTH
Apple Cup — Sunday, September 6 • 1:00–4:00 PM The cross-state rivalry is back. Grab a seat, pick a side, and let's watch a Washington tradition together.
Truth Teller Wine Tasting — Friday, September 11 • 6:00–8:00 PM Try something new, find a new favorite, or just enjoy a good excuse to pull up a chair on a Friday evening.
Big Smiles Bakery Cookie Class — Tuesday, September 15 • 5:30–6:30 PM A little sugar, a little skill, and something sweet to take home.
Lumi The Tooth Fairy's Book Tour — Thursday, September 17 • 5:00–6:00 PM Bring the kids for a story. A perfect reason to step out of the house and share a little magic before the evening routine begins.
A THOUGHT TO CARRY
Nola Ochs once said: "I would like to encourage people to keep on learning. Our education is never complete."
As the rhythm of late summer gives way to the routines of fall, may you find room for your own second beginnings—whether that means learning a new craft, picking up an old project, or simply pulling up a chair with your neighbors.
With gratitude,
The Post & Pour Team
