21 Years Ago

Posted 22:33 PST Sat May 8, 2004 in Ruminations

I’m listening to Whippoorwill from the album Changes: Native American Flute Music by R. Carlos Nakai. The album dates from 1983, 21 years ago. It made me think about where I was 21 years ago.

We were still in Denver, Colorado, where I worked for Law Engineering Testing Company in the Englewood branch office, although my time there was rapidly winding down. I was about to make the decision to move home to Rolla so I could go back to graduate school, working toward a Ph.D. in civil engineering. It was a hard time in my life.

It’s interesting how music can take you back to some time or place in the past. Even though I wasn’t listening to Nakai at the time, seeing when the album was released really brought me back to that time.

I’m glad I’m past that time and living now. Even when times are hard, I like my job much better and the people I work with, students and professionals, are generally first-rate. For me, the Ph.D. was the right thing to do. I’m glad that I did it.