This will probably be the longest post you’ve ever seen from me, but it was written mostly in my head as I was driving to Boston while listening to Dvorak’s Symphony Number 5 in E-minor. As many of you know, the 2nd movement is known as the “Going Home” movement. Because of that, our Dvorak 5th CD is one that’s always in the car as we’re driving to Hornell. That’s the source of two trains of thought as I was driving the Mass Pike to Boston on this beautiful, sunny, autumn New England day. 1. I haven’t lived in Hornell since I left for college many years ago. In spite of that, our little town will always be my hometown. I may root for the Patriots and Red Sox, I may live in Central Massachusetts, but Hornell is and always will be my hometown. The values Nancy and I learned growing up in small towns at opposite ends of New York State are ones that we seem to have successfully passed along to our offspring. I will be forever grateful to my friends in Hornell who have preserved those values over the years and who have maintained the sense of community I feel whenever I return. 2. Be that as it may, I have been experiencing a new sense of “going home” since early May. That’s when I started my work as a part-time instructor at Northeastern University. What has become obvious to me is that in spite of the eclectic nature of my background in the corporate world, I belong in academia. Maybe the moving about between careers and jobs has been because I’ve been searching for something I couldn’t find in corporate America. I’ve found it here. I can thank Boston University and Walden University for providing me with the academic background to do what I’m doing here, I can thank my numerous employers over the years for allowing me to gain the breadth and depth of experiences that support my teaching, and I thank Northeastern for giving me the opportunity to prove that my paper qualifications translate into capability to teach at this university. So professionally, I’ve come home and I’m ecstatic to be here.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 15:06:42 +0000