Journaling reads:
Earning my Masters passed a huge milestone. It was a personal goal, not professional, as I was already 62, and I did it because I could, not because I had to. Working at a university has its perks.
I asked for a waiver for the GRE because I hadn’t studied math in more than 40 years and probably couldn’t pass that part, but I KNEW I had the ability and desire to do this. The department chair granted it with a chuckle and a caveat – conditional admission to the History graduate program. If I had a final grade below a B in the first semester I was out. No problem. I don’t do anything less than an A. And I didn’t. But I didn’t get there on my own. Along the way, three professors made profound and indelible impressions on me. I am forever grateful to them.
Dr. Kathy Callahan taught me to be a better researcher. As a genealogist I already knew but she helped me see with greater clarity and have fun doing it. Now I search outside the pale.
Dr. Bill Mulligan, with his boundless enthusiasm for his craft, made me a better teacher. I hope to teach or tutor on a college level when I retire from my day job, and his example shines before me. If I can impart even a tenth of the love he has of history and cause even one student to fall in love with it, what a fine accomplishment
Then came Dr. Jim Humphreys. I always got A+’s for writing before I took my first class with him. He ripped my first book review to shreds over something I’d never learned, although I’d gone to high school when teachers still taught how to write - passive voice. I went back to work in tears. But I never made that mistake again. Nor did I use the Oxford comma again. He made me an infinitely better writer and embarrassed me often by using my reviews and papers as examples. I used colorful, exciting words and seldom used the same descriptors twice if I could avoid it. He loved that. I hope it made my classmates better writers, too.