The new school year’s classes begin today at Webster University.
I am starting my 21st year of full-time college teaching, and my 31st year of teaching in higher education.
And as I do so today, I am ever so grateful for those life-changing three years at the University of Kansas, where I earned my doctorate. I could write volumes about the learning, the lifetime relationships, the formation, the music, the beer, the travel.
Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
Found in my father’s belongings: this postcard, addressed to my grandmother, giving my new address in Kansas when I moved there on January 2, 1997.
The “choking back tears” reference proved false. My three years at KU, and most of that also living in Lawrence, were the single best three years of my life to date.
My second doctoral recital in April 1998 featured music of Britten, Naylor, and Howells.
I conducted the Howells.
The program notes: docrecital2
Thank to Kyle Unruh, who took these photos, I still have my prints from a photo shoot in 1999 as I was wrapping up at the University of Kansas. These photos were at the end of my Atkins Diet, where I had dropped nearly 40 pounds of primarily beer weight (how I loved Free State Brewing Co.!).
I’m leaving the Heathrow Express from London Paddington. Walking in the endless underground tunnels to make my way to the Queen’s Terminal, I hear behind me “Rock Chalk.”
I turn around.
A guy — college age, of Asian heritage — in a Jayhawks fleece sweater is making his way back to Lawrence after visiting family in the UK.
He spotted by University of Kansas Jayhawks identification tag on my suitcase.
Jayhawks are everywhere.
And I’m glad for this truth!
