'From the Meth Lab to the Math Lab' One of Cabrillo's Oldest Students Makes a New Life

Imagine yourself at 70. You look in the mirror and notice what age has done to your face. You have crow’s feet around your eyes, loose skin at your jawline and your gray hair has thinned. You are clearly no longer the person you used to be. Thinking back to your 20s, you find you haven’t accomplished what you thought you would by now — things that would change your life. At 70, would you have the guts to keep trying?

This is the life of Allan Ing. When he earns his degree, he will be the first of his 10 siblings to graduate from college. At 73, he’s one of the oldest students on campus and one semester away from transferring to San Jose State to study social science. At 68, Ing decided to attend Cabrillo for a computer class; by the end of that day, he’d enrolled as a full-time student. He’s spending nine hours a day, five days a week on campus.

“Life goes so fast it is unbelievable,” he said in a recent campus interview. “Not too long ago I was one of those kids in the parking lot smoking pot. I was just like them. And 50 years later, I’m trying to accomplish something that I should have done 50 years ago.”

After a few failed attempts in the ’60s at University of Hawaii and Foothill College because of “spending too much time in the bar,” Ing finally found success in real estate classes at De Anza College. He earned his broker’s license.

The money started rolling in once he became a broker in Silicon Valley. “I became successful because I didn’t look at the dollars, but I looked at the service I was doing for the people, and the money came after,” Ing said.

And boy did it come.

Ing’s lowest-earning years brought him $250,000 annually; at his highest, “it was too high,” he said, unwilling to put a number on it. “It was a very exciting time.”

At 40, Ing was living high. His five cars ranged from Mercedes to Cadillacs, and he moored his  boat at Pier 39 in San Francisco. He was the guy that got anything he wanted, when he wanted it, he said. At a restaurant with a 45-minute wait, Ing would slip the hostess cash, order a drink at the bar, and before the drink came they would call his name.

“I had lots and lots of money — I didn’t have to look for girlfriends.”

At some point, the fun started to turn. “I became arrogant. That was my downfall,” Ing said. “I had too much of everything. I wanted something else in life — I was searching for something else, and I thought I found it in drugs. Drugs and alcohol were my downfall. I went from being a broker to being broke.”

Ing’s fast cars, drugs and money spit him onto a slippery slope: “I started doing too much alcohol and drugs, and real estate took a bad turn. And I lost my girlfriend to cancer. And I lost a lot of money.”

Ing started dealing drugs. He got caught at age 52 and was convicted of conspiracy to buy cocaine. He spent five years in a Las Vegas federal prison. While locked up, Ing participated in a drug-abuse program for a year. It helped for a while, he said, but he relapsed after five years clean and sober.

Ing moved to Santa Cruz when he left prison. How did he get back into drugs? “I met a girl,” he said.

Ing started using crystal meth. “[That] was really nasty. My lowest point in Santa Cruz was finding myself homeless and chasing drugs.”

He was living in his van, addicted.

At 65, Ing started recovery. “Today, I’m real active in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. It’s a spiritual life. The program of recovery has given me serenity.”

Even with a 50-year gap since high school, Ing said he’s never been happier. “I feel so privileged at my age to come to Cabrillo.”

After falling so far, from a fast and flush lifestyle to battling drug addiction on the street, Ing finds himself  humbled. “I don’t need the fancy clothes. I don’t need the fancy cars – I had all that. I don’t need the fancy girl either,” he said, laughing.

 Ing said he’s faced no discrimination as an older student. And Cabrillo offers the best education he’s had, he said.

“I never had this much help in college, out of all the colleges I went to. Cabrillo really holds your hand. Everyone is so pleasant and helpful. Its hard to fail. If you are failing Cabrillo, you’re doing something really bad,”  he said with a smile.

Ing has seen a change in himself since he started at Cabrillo six years ago. “The guidance I got here at Cabrillo has helped transform my life. … I learned to discipline myself here.”

Ing sees an old version of himself in some of his fellow students. “It makes me sad to see some of the students messing around in the parking lot and not taking Cabrillo seriously enough. … They’re missing such a golden opportunity for such a great education.

“I went from the meth lab to the math lab,” he said with a laugh.