Starting university without the usual secondary / high school education meant that my first years were very difficult. My first full-time year saw me drop a course on Astronomy in November because my mid-term exam mark was 36% and there seemed little chance of improvement. I took Physics 101 and I recall the first day finding out in dramatic fashion that I was the only one of 250 students that didn't at least have a grade 12 physics course under my belt (I passed with a 60%, one of my most proud and pointless marks). The work was overwhelming, particularly as I was also working my Handyman service to fund said education, and I miscalculated on where to put my resources, missing the requisite 60% for math and despite getting an A in Comp Sci, a B in Philosophy and my proud 50% in Physics, I had to (temporarily) drop out of the Computer Science program.

All degrees at UWO, at the time I went in any case, required one to explore all of the main faculties to some small degree, it was one of the reasons the course I took in year 1 was so popular, it provided a useful Science credit for Social Scientists. I took Philosophy, Psychology, my repeated math and Intro to Meteorology (a real bird course). I really enjoyed Philosophy and thought seriously about a minor in Philosophy; I also met the best University Professor I'd ever had, Morley Lipshitz I think was his name (shame I can't recall it for sure) who saw me through my divorce as well as my first essay course ever.

My third full time year was my fourth year at UWO and yet I was in the second year of a four-year degree, I was definitely the old guy in the room. I took as much Comp Sci as I could, some more math, a fantastic Geography course on sustainable development, and Speech or public speaking. I was already a radio personality on campus, for almost two years before I took the course, so I was flippant about it and put nearly zero effort into improving ... I got a lousy mark, the one I deserved, but I really did enjoy the course. The year saw many a late night hour in the computer labs using serial VT100 terminals to access a VAX/VMS computer ... as the old guy I looked like a grad and so I did manage a few times to use the better (and more available) lab facilities open for grads, but mostly I stayed with my peers where we learned together. The single most useful thing I learned in Comp Sci that year was how to touch-type.

Third year Comp Sci is, for the four-year degree, the hardest of all. The workload is crazy large, I put in 60-70 hour weeks plus actual class time, plus at least 15 hours of work at CCS. I was in tears at least 4 times that year, completely overwhelmed with it all. Were it not for the chairwoman of the department at the time, I'm sure I would have quit for nothing about the year told me I was going to be able to meet the requisite marks and continue. I had personality clashes with two separate professors and there just seemed so much I didn't know. I was sure I'd never be able to keep up with my peers (that I frankly didn't feel very much like a peer at all). I stuck it out, though, and some how managed to meet all the mark plateaus required (though I'm still not sure there wasn't some backdoor discussions I wasn't privy to).

The fourth year really saw me come alive. I spent the summer between years as I had for the previous, working for CCS/ITS and this summer I was asked to be the system administrator for the campuses main computer ... that VAX/VMS system from the previous year. Something really clicked that summer, the hard work I put in not just at Comp Sci but more with the User Desk Support role where I just ate up information. In school I aced the whole year, actually getting 99% in one course (and I ended up teaching the last half of that year). From the previous year where almost everything handed in was either late or incomplete (or both), this year I was handing in projects a week early and doing extra work on top of it. I truly fell in love with Academia, it was a great year and inspired me to get my MSc.