For some people, driving their kids to college is when empty nest syndrome begins. Some indulge in recreation they have had to put off. For others, the sudden freedom is disconcerting, even depressing, and they feel robbed of that important, parental role.
For Linda Corso of Groveland, taking her daughter, Jennifer, to Northern Essex Community College provoked neither an impulse to spoil, nor to doubt herself. Instead, it provided an opportunity for her to leave the nest as well.
"My goals kept getting put off, put off," she says, noting that raising children and working at medical billing and for 10 years as a teacher's aide in the Pentucket district, had interrupted an earlier course of study in respiratory therapy at Northeastern.
After being recognized as the top student in the Human Services program at her graduation on Saturday, May 12, some might think Corso at 49 had finally reached those long-delayed goals. In fact, she is just getting started. Corso is employed in her field, currently working as a counselor at Link House, a residence in Newburyport for individuals recovering from drug and alcohol abuse. She is also continuing her studies at night at Salem State College, and plans to get first her bachelor's degree, then a master's in counseling.
Strictly speaking, her daughter was transferring to Northern Essex, rather than attending for the first time, when Corso first drove her to the Haverhill campus. Jennifer Corso had been enrolled in a graphic design program at Plymouth State College in New Hampshire when she made a sharp change of plans, deciding to study nursing instead. Linda Corso believed that, before committing to such a different subject, it would be better for her daughter to test her aptitude first, by taking a few courses at Northern Essex.
Linda Corso ended up testing herself as well. Her own first courses, once she had made the initial decision to go back to school, were in accounting and computers. Far from a leap into new territory, these were designed to sharpen skills she had developed on her own, managing her husband's plumbing and heating business. While gaining practical knowledge, her most useful lesson at that stage might have been that her age was no barrier to going back to school.
"My first semester was great," Corso says, especially when she found out that women returning to school are common at Northern Essex. "I was amazed at how many students were older," she says, and pleased to find that the school "is very proactive helping people find resources" to go back to school. As far as the attitude of her younger classmates toward someone in her 40s, she found that "If I don't care, they don't care."
There were moments when her daughter would point her out to friends on campus, but their reaction to the generational divide was never anything but fun. What Corso said surprised her was to discover that, in spite of their difference in ages, she and her daughter thought almost exactly alike. "When you write that first paper, introducing yourself to the teacher, we wrote about the same things," she said.
They took a course together and found themselves drawn to the same novels, the same parts of novels, and the same exam questions about those novels.
"We both chose to write about Huck Finn, and chose to answer the same question, which was whether Huck's attitudes about race relations were typical of his time, or more like a contemporary person's," she said. Even after they resolved not to discuss books or assignments together, it didn't really matter, they ended up in the same places | with one exception. "Our tastes in poetry were completely different," Corso said with a shrug. "We like different styles."
If there was another important difference from not only her own children | Corso's son now studies at Northern Essex | but younger students generally, it was that "I worked harder." Being older makes you appreciate how time passes, how you've spent it and how much you have left, Corso says, which means that she doesn't want to waste a minute. Experience has also taught her that "you only get out of it what you put into it," and the high honors she graduated with symbolize how much she put into her studies.
The field she has chosen needs someone of her talents. One of the alarming trends she notices among her patients is the growing number of young addicts, especially those abusing heroin. She said the rash of young addicts alarms her with their "lack of concern for themselves." They have an attitude in which "anything goes, whatever it is," she said.
Linda Corso went back to school and finished with top honors at Northern Essex Community College. She is going to Salem State for a degree in counseling and works as a counselor for Link House, Newburyport.Bryan Eaton/Staff Photo(Click for larger image)
