A 96 years old man in Italy received a degree with top honors from the University of Palermo in History and Philosophy, as Reuters reported. Giuseppe Paterno surpassed others of his age and just achieved a life long dream of graduating with a university degree at the top of his class. Giuseppe Paterno lives in Italy and has a great love for books but was never able to study.
Paterno was born in 1923 and grew up in a poor family in Sicily. Despite his love for studying he was not able to go to university. He served in WWII and went to be a railway worker. He had a great love for education. As they say, it’s never too late, so, he decided to enroll in a university.
“I said, that’s it, now or never,” he said.
He was a little confused about how teachers would behave in front of such an older person but his teachers admired him and found him more careful as compared with the young students. His teachers congratulated him for the effort.
Paterno has been using the same typewriter since 1984 and studying from books but when coronavirus hit and universities closed, he had to adopt online classes and exams. He earned his degree with high honor in his class and had a small ceremony with his family.
Paterno plans to devote himself to writing and wants to revisit all the texts that he was not able to explore. That is his goal now. He eschewed Google in favor of printed books and was not tempted by the late-night student parties of his 20-year-old classmates, who applauded him warmly at the graduation ceremony.
