“Plan? No, there was never any plan. It just happened,” says Beth Myerowitz, a 59 year-old student who happened to graduate alongside her 24 year-old son Joshua Sánchez this spring. The two donned cap and gown to hear President Obama’s commencement speech at Michigan Stadium. Although no one keeps official count, the number of parents and children receiving U-M degrees in the same year is tiny, according to the Registrar’s Office. So is the number of people in their 50s earning Michigan degrees: there are just 75 among the 11,387 students who could have walked in this spring’s ceremony. By contrast, the economic and social drivers that propelled Myerowitz back to school are enormous, touching families all across the country.”I taught in an inner city primary school, designed embedded systems for a defense contractor, and spent 20 years as a systems engineer at AT&T until it was ‘reorganized.'” says Myerowitz. Her master’s in Archives and Records Management and the new career that she hopes will come with it are just a few more unexpected chapters in a story already full of them—like the stories of many baby boomers, especially women. “I’d never set foot in the Midwest until 2003, when my son Joshua came to Ann Arbor to audition.” After just one day on campus, her son was sold on the School of Music, Theatre and Dance. He majored in vocal performance, sang with the Men’s Glee Club and The Friars, earned his bachelor’s degree and then enrolled in the master’s program. Meanwhile, downsized and searching for work back home in Pennington, NJ, Myerowitz volunteered at the public library, the smallest in the state. “I did it as a favor for a friend who was moving away,” she says. “I’d never thought twice about libraries.” But she loved the work.While shuttling back and forth to hear her son perform, she discovered Ann Arbor. Its cultural life was rich and accessible; plus, she could walk everywhere. One day, after passing the School of Information in West Hall, she turned around and, on impulse, made an appointment to see an admissions officer. The rest is what’s come to be known as reinvention. Myerowitz became one more aging baby boomer pushed by a sour economy to pursue a new career. Reinvented boomers seem to be everywhere in the media, enjoying easy transitions to enticing new careers. Myerowitz sees it differently. “There is nothing simple about starting again,” she says. “Getting ready for the Graduate Record Examination was hard.” She bought a test guide and spent months working her way through the exercises. The personal essay required for admission to the School of Information was even tougher. And, once admitted, she found the classes interesting but the work load heavy. Now, Myerowitz is in search of a job. Was her two-year sojourn worth it? “Absolutely,” she says. She discovered that she wants to work as an archivist, a completely new professional direction. And then she discovered a new lifestyle, one in which she could use her free time to walk to concerts, lectures and exhibits. “The process was just as important as the product. I wouldn’t trade these years for anything.”