@Motts - thank you again for that feedback. I'm taking it to heart in a good way. Some years back, I went to a nearby university, planning to take an English course. I do like to write and thought it would give me an outlet for that where I could get some feedback. I'ld been a student there briefly many, many years ago.

Well they wouldn't let me register for the course without me providing all my academic records going clear back to high school. I told them they already had all those records because I had done some post graduate work at this university in 1987. They said that records that old were in a warehouse somewhere and inaccessible to them. They could only retrieve digitized records in their computer base. My records were too old to have been put in their computer files. So they said I would have to resubmit everything. I couldn't have collected all that in time to take this course. Plus, I'll bet the schools I attended in my younger days would also probably have had the same problem retrieving their files on me. So I left the campus in tears and gave up. Subsequently, other things demanded my time and attention - like my boyfriend becoming sick and disabled. I abandoned my little dream of finding an outlet to work on some writing. Plus I'm computer illiterate. These days, college participation demands a high level of computer competencey.

As I write this, my thinking clarifies. First of all, I give up too damπ easily. Back then, I should have written a letter to the course instructor requesting special permission to enroll. They had told me that the instructor was demanding records because it was an advanced level English course, and required some proven competency in English composition. I had taken more than enough college level English to meet the prerequisites, but they wanted proof. Your responses above have given me an idea I never thought of before. Had I just written a well thought out letter to the instructor, my letter itself probably would have been amply persuasive that I was competent to take the course.

Our exchange here is giving me real food for thought. Taking such a course may, or may not, be an avenue I should again pursue. But I need to do something as an outlet for some skills that I have. It will take some effort . . . and some courage . . . but I should explore some opportunities to find something that would interest me. I live in a decent size city with tons of things going on. I need to have a little push and not be so quick to give up. Social anxiety does hamper me, but I've overcome that before to do other things in life. Thank you for encouraging me.