Actually, she toots a clarinet–and 47-year-old Cal student Cynthia Erb doesn’t need to boast about being the oldest recent member of our awesome band. Today, the Contra Costa Times featured this former investment banker’s story, which should be an inspiration to all the broke Haas students out there who may want to actually chase their dreams instead of chasing paper.

Currently a student of the department of architecture here at Berkeley, Erb decided to go back to school after a career in banking because she wanted to “indulge her long-term interest in design.” With dream No. 1 well on its way to fulfillment, playing clarinet for the Cal Band was the second dream she was to act upon, even though she is more than 20 years older than her band mates.

We should note that in addition to playing in the Cal Band and being a student in one of the most overworked departments at Berkeley, Cynthia Erb is a wife, has three children and lives almost 20 miles away from campus. Compare that to those of us young’uns who can hardly manage to walk to Shattuck Avenue from campus–or those who would rather not try to balance a job, extracurriculars and midterms with Facebook-time and partying.

Can we get a “You go, girl?”

Image Source: Ian Buchanan, Daily Cal
47-year-old Retired Banker Follows Dream with Cal Band [Contra Costa Times]

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