A 23-year journey to a degree

Wed, Jul 20th 2011, 01:11 PM

For mother of two, Bridget Murray, starting a journey and not finishing it does not sit well with her at all.  As long as she has an incomplete task it nags at her.  She says the feeling is akin to having a little piece of stone in your shoe, a feeling that is most uncomfortable.  With that in mind, 23 years after she started studies towards a master's degree, she's finally completed it.  The 50-something-plus (as she describes herself) Murray graduated from Sojourner-Douglass College in June with a Master of Science degree in Public Administration -- 23 years after she first started her quest.

Murray who had a bachelor's degree in business education started the MBA program at the University of Miami in 1988 with the full financial assistance of her employer at the time that had also financially paid for her undergraduate degree.  She finished the first year of the MBA program (attending classes on Friday afternoons and all day Saturdays), before the constant travel for work forced her to miss a few classes.

She made a decision to sit out one semester. That semester stretched into 21 years and ended in July 2009 when she enrolled in the Master of Science degree program at Sojourner-Douglass and culminated with her proud commencement march in June 2011.  This time around, she did not have a benefactor to pay for her degree.  Murray had to pay the $20,000 out of pocket.  But now that she's completed the journey she set out on a quite a few years later, which she's proud of, she says her greatest reward has been that her decision to return to the classroom and earn her master's degree impacted her eldest daughter, Alexis, in a powerful way.

"Initially, Alexis, who was in ninth grade, and 14-years-old at the time, was not too comfortable with my being in school, particularly when I got A [grades] in my classes, however, she was inspired to try harder, after all, if her 'not so young' mother could study, research and get some A [grades], then she with her 'younger' brain could do the same."
Murray says she saw her daughter study like she'd never seen her do before, and the result was that Alexis went into her finals with a very strong grade point average (GPA) and her final report card reflected her highest GPA ever, just shy of the honor roll.  For the past two years that Murray has been a student she says her eldest daughter's grades have improved consistently.

"I was so proud that she went back to school to finish her master's degree," says the now 16-year-old Alexis, a student at Aquinas College.  "She really motivated me to push hard -- how she has two children and a job that she works hard at.   Because of her I decided to study more.  I would come home and look over my stuff, and that helped me achieve my highest grades ever, which I'm proud of."

Murray can recall days that she and her two daughters studied together at the dining table, or piled onto her king-sized bed to study.  Murray would be working on her term papers, Alexis studied for her Bahamas Junior Certificates and Allie (now five) who was three at the time would be learning her letters and numbers from her flash cards.

The mother of two says she's also inspired as she realizes she's taught her daughter a valuable lesson that it's never too late to attain higher education.  "She will always remember that mommy did it, and that she can too.   Age will never be a factor that will influence her not too.  She will never be too old to do anything.  Alexis understood that you're never too old to learn and that it's never too late.   And that if you start a project and for some reason you can't finish it in your original timeline you can always pick it back up."

While it taught her teenage daughter an invaluable lesson, Murray says she was invigorated going back into the classroom.  "I felt fresh, like my brain was being challenged again.  My work was challenging me ... yes, but I felt like I was learning.   I was exploring new ground.  I was excited more than --------anything else.  I was excited to go back to school, packing my books and showing up for class and doing assignments."

She admits that the past two years were not all fun and easy, but says she got a thrill from being back in a learning environment, working on a laptop, exploring the Internet, submitting work and getting it back all inked up and having to redo it to meet a certain standard.  Murray enjoyed being challenged and having some of her pre-conceived notions and thoughts challenged.

WHY SHE DID IT
When the mother of two told friends and family, most of whom had obtained their master's degrees from their early 20s that she was going back into the classroom, she says they were supportive, but wanted to know why.  For the most part, she says they were fascinated when she told them she wasn't doing it for professional mobility.

"Professional mobility was not my motivation.  If things come, then so be it, but that was not my motivation.  I just do not like things unfinished.  I just did it to accomplish a task and to complete something I'd started and left unfinished and that wasn't resting well with me.  After 21 years I still wanted to complete this master's degree.  So I feel they were fascinated that I was just going back to school to spend $20,000 and have lots of sleepless nights doing it because I wanted to achieve these goals.   Some were like 'Why are you doing this?'  But others were like 'Fantastic you're sticking with it.'  Everybody was positive and encouraging and was there when I had some rough moments, especially my project assistant Latasha Allen who got the brunt of the stress -- negative and positive -- because she and I work together.  But she was also a big advocate for me 100 percent as was every member of my family."

ADVICE TO OTHERS
The self-described 50-something plus Murray says there are too many people who think they are too old and tired to commit to studying and learning, but she says the brain is never too old.

"The body may be just a little tired, but the hardest thing is to just decide to do it.  And some of us feel we're just too old, but the brain to me needs to be challenged.  I found the master's program in public administration fascinating just to understand how policies are made, how they are formulated, how things get on the government agenda, the impact of civil society can have on the government's agenda, and how we must not be spectators, but we could be active participants."
WHAT'S NEXT
For Murray whose educational journey has spanned many decades, starting with her associate's degree in secretarial science from The College of The Bahamas in the 1970s, then a bachelor's degree from Benedict College, Columbia, South Carolina in the 1980s, and now that she has a master's degree, what's next?  You'd think it would be her doctorate, but actually -- it just may be music lessons.

"There were two things I really regretted during my life -- one I've rectified.  My parents sent us to music lessons as children, and I remember not performing at my first recital and this was after my parents had to sacrifice to pay  ... I think it was $5 a week for us to take lessons.  After I didn't perform, they stopped paying for me to take lessons, so that's another regret and something else that I want to work on.  That's my next project -- to go back to music lessons.
Murray has a few items on her bucket list and she says she definitely is going to complete them.  What else can you expect from a woman who feels like she has a rock in her shoe when she doesn't complete something.

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