Exclusive | Im a grandma of 3 and just graduated from college now Im taking a millennial-style gap year and celebrating with my new Gen Z pals

This new grad is celebrating with a post-college rite of passage — a gap year — only she’s doing it in her 70s.At 74, Dorotea Levy de Szekely — grandmother of three and self-proclaimed lifelong learner — just graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College, proving it’s never too late to hit the books or rewrite your own story.“My motto has always been, ‘Don’t let age be your cage,’” the witty Upper East Sider told The Post, walking in Hunter’s 228th commencement at the Barclays Center on Friday, alongside more than 3,300 grads.Born and raised in Argentina, the stylish silver scholar had a decades-long detour before snagging her degree. After a cruel teacher in the first grade told her she’d “never” finish high school due to a learning disability, Levy de Szekely avoided college entirely, despite an unshakable love for learning and a longing to pursue higher education.“You always learn, and I worked my life towards that verdict,” she told The Post.“But every time I walked by a university, I felt this sadness and longing inside, as I wanted to go there and learn.“Thankfully, here at Hunter College in New York City, this is the only place in the world I think that welcomed me, notwithstanding my age or who I am.”Her college comeback began in 2017, when she enrolled at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and earned her associate’s degree in 2019 with a flawless 4.0 GPA as the co-valedictorian of her class. Then came Hunter, where she racked up a 3.98 GPA, triple majored in German Language and Literature, English (with a concentration in Creative Writing), and Studio Art — and made BFFs more than half her age.One of them, a 20-year-old classmate named Babsi, is “younger than my granddaughter,” Levy de Szekely noted — and yet, they’ve become such close pals that Babsi came to cheer her on at graduation and even set up a WhatsApp video call so a classmate in Pakistan could watch, too.

“I thought this...