Let's Pretend

"Do me a favor, let's pretend we're in college. Okay now."




My very first semester of college I had the world's scariest science teacher. His name is Dr. Stricklan, and he is one of the top experts in porcupines. Yeah, I said it...porcupines. He has discovered two different species, an insect with wings and a fish, and is also a Boy Scout leader. In fact, he was much less intimidating when I saw him at Albertson's in his boy scout uniform with a group of cub scouts getting stuff for s'mores. He told me that I wasn't allowed to tell anyone because he didn't want to lose his "tough guy" image -I obviously didn't and couldn't agree to that.

Anyway, back to him being intimidating. This class was my very first class on my very first day of college -freshman science. He said, "Okay boys and girls, your mommies can't save you now." Oh crap. I knew from that moment on that I was in for a struggle. He's so smart, and his favorite thing in life is reading encyclopedias (for real). Class was...intense...to say the least. I was always to afraid to even look him in the eye, but I was amazed at the courage that some people had. For example, if he had a test open on Friday and Saturday some people would come and say, "I'm going to Utah for the weekend and my roommates want to leave Friday morning. Is there anyway that I can take the test on Monday?" He would look them in the eye and say, "Do me a favor; let's pretend we're in college. Okay now." And then he would turn away. Clearly the answer to their stupid question was a big fat NO. As scary as he was, I couldn't help but laugh whenever I heard him say that.

I haven't thought about him in great detail for a quite a while because, quite frankly, why would I? But tonight we crossed paths again. RJ asked if I would come to a lecture with him for his genetics class. I know, I know, don't all be jealous at once. As shocking as this might seem, I didn't want to go. BUT, since RJ is just so fabulous I told him I would go. He said it was going to be about fossils, but he didn't know anything else other than that. I figured I could handle an hour on fossils, and I was just hoping that the discussion wouldn't be too over my head. When I walked in and saw Dr. Stricklan I froze in my tracks. Despite the fact that it's been almost 4 years since his class, he still terrifies me. I realized that he was going to be the speaker and I thought, "Oh boy...here we go. Definitely going to all be over my head." I also figured that it was going to be about porcupine fossils and I immediately regretted agreeing to go to the lecture.

However, it took an interesting turn. He recently lost one of his sisters, so his lecture was about education and life choices that changed his career path and helped him to discover these two fossils. It was really sad. His whole lecture included pictures of his family from when he was a kid, and pictures of his wife and kids. I had heard these stories before since I was in his class, but it was so much more powerful tonight. To sum it up, his mother went to high school during the Great Depression, and even though she had been awarded a full scholarship to college, there was no actual money behind the scholarship. So, his mom never went to college. She did school teacher's laundry for three years in order to buy a single encyclopedia, which she would read to her kids every night (hence Dr. Stricklan's love for encyclopedias). Anyway, his story went on about how he grew up, went to school, met his wife, got married, had kids, etc. His main point, though, was this: a lot of people paid the price for us to be getting an eduction, and it wasn't us. He brought his story back to his mom, and how she would have loved to have an opportunity to go to college and study different things, and how so many students do not take advantage of their opportunities while at school. He also said that we should never ever limit our career choices, because we never know what's going to happen or what opportunities will present themselves. He said, "Do you think I planned on becoming an expert in porcupines? Uhh...NO! Do you think my idea of fun would eventually be going out to dry lake beds and looking for fossils? Uhh...NO! But those are the opportunities I was given, and I took them, and I loved them."

So, I guess I should thank RJ now for inviting me to the lecture because it wasn't boring at all, and I actually really enjoyed hearing his stories again, and I especially enjoyed his message. I felt like it really applied to me, since there are so many different things I want to do with my degree.

Dr. Sticklan wasn't as scary when I left. But I still would never ask him if I could take a test outside of his scheduled time.