Seven years after she retires from the Royal Bank of Canada, ending a thirty-seven-year career, Yvonne Blackwood surprised her friends and family by returning to school at sixty-four to pursue an English degree. She craves knowledge and is motivated by four powerful reasons—To add texture to her writing; to ward off dementia by exercising her brain muscles with her studies; to add ongoing structure to her life by attending classes regularly; to inspire her two young grandsons to attend university full-time when they graduate from high school. She writes, “What I didn't know was how much the pursuit of the degree would inform me, challenge me, satisfy me, and drive me to consider giving up on more than one occasion.”