Transitions...

Transitions are those times in you life where significant changes happen; the kind that only happen once. Some are minor - you taste your first beer. Some are major - you hold you first born child in your arms. Others are simply profound and affective.

On Thursday I attended what is likely the last instructional academic class that I will ever attend as a student pursuing formal education. Of course that does not mean I stop learning or even never attend another class. But it does mean the end of a phase in my formal education since it is the last class in course work for my PhD. It represents a period that began in September 1956, when I had my first day of school - with my sister Gwendolyn as my grade one teacher. Thus it represents the end of some 52 years of formal education.

The event on Thursday might not have been so profound except for another occurrence. On the same day I place my first text book order as the instructor of record for an undergraduate course I will be teaching this summer at the U of C.

In the same day I moved from student to teacher, an event that marks a significant transition in my life. It is unique and profound and come with a certain feeling of melancholy. I have felt this sort of change only once before, when I graduated from high school in 1967.