I’m addicted (addicted, I tell you!) to learning. I love school; I can’t get enough of it. My retirement plan (if buying a tropical island doesn’t work out due to melting glaciers and disappearing archipelagos) is to start right back up with my college education again. I don’t require more degrees; it’s not a matter of whoever-dies-with-the-most-letters-after-their-name-wins, but the process of absorbing knowledge makes me happy, and isn’t that what all retirees are striving for?

Since the economy blows and, thanks to all the advancements in the medical field, I will be living a really long-ass life, I will probably never be able to afford to retire as extravagantly as I may have once hoped. My grandmother, who is a doctor and was raised a Catholic, possesses an incredibly intelligent, humorous, and awfully acerbic wit. She has always maintained that we can all blame overpopulation on doctors and the Pope. Seeing as how she’s still alive (modern medicine and a bunch of doctors saved her ass) and has still not been struck down by lightning (if she was wrong about the Pope, wouldn’t someone have done something about it by now?), I’m going to have to agree with her.

Fortunately for me, I have found a way to continue my knowledge-absorbing dreams for free. UniversitiesandColleges.org has a compiled the be-all end-all of free higher education courses: The Master List of Free Online College Courses. I’m not a Catholic, but I can still hear the angels singing (maybe they’re Ivory Tower angels).

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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