Dreams...

Lately it has become clearer that dreams are important. I think this has come more into the spotlight as a member of my high school graduating class has also come into the spotlight.

I was up in Blacksburg, VA for a graduate student conference this weekend. My parents drove down from NY to visit the rest of my state-side family in VA, and come and see me. My mother brought with her a number of newspaper clippings featuring my friend, Ryan Vanderhoof, whose Brooklyn-based band has received some notoriety lately on David Letterman, and in the pages of Rolling Stone Magazine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akron/Family

I see his face in those pictures and remember standing beside him in chorus singing, performing beside him on the stage, and being in a select group with him who played one instrument in band and another instrument in jazz band. He arranged a song that the select chorus sang at our graduation ceremony. We were on the track team together for at least one season. And I think of him doing exactly what he has always wanted to do…play and share his music… I am so proud of him!

And so I look to my own dreams and aspirations. This conference helped me to do that.
It was a gathering of grad students practicing collegiality, practicing their presenting skills and trying out there ideas on people whom they only meet once a year. It was energizing!! I presented my thesis, and in the questions that were asked I remembered that I probably didn’t have to look too much further than the shortcomings of that project to see what more needed to be done in researching trust! I presented a roundtable session to hear how other departments were assessing student learning and got ideas about how to improve our own department. It’s not so much about learning new things as it is about taking what you already know and tweaking it just that much, just enough to make the old new again.

My dream is to be a professor somewhere and teach in a classroom and talk to college students and learn what they care about. I dream about having an office that I can decorate with wood paneling and wall hangings and talk about the important things in life…those things that are not discovered by research but in your own heart.

The journey to my dream has not been an easy one…and Ryan’s wasn’t easy either.
But I’m glad that I got to share in his dream in high school.
And there are so many that have shared in my dream as well.
Thanks…