April 19, 2018
(AFP) - Guadalupe Palacios stands out in her high school class in Mexico, and it is not just because of her gray hair, her deeply creased skin or her 96 years.
Palacios, who is seeking to live out her dream of finishing high school by her 100th birthday, is also the most enthusiastic student in the classroom.
She diligently took notes in her chemistry and mathematics classes and even strutted her stuff in a dance class.
Palacios grew up in poverty in an indigenous village and spent her childhood helping her family farm corn and beans instead of going to school.
As an adult, she went to work selling chickens at market, married twice and had six children.
Along the way, she picked up arithmetic, but never learned to read and write.
When she turned 92, she said, she decided it was time, and enrolled in a literacy program.