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A feel good story with an unplanned ending. And sometimes those are the best stories around.
I recently found a number of essays that I’d written in 3rd and 4th year University. My favourite classes with my favourite Prof; International Relations and U.S. Foreign Policy. I chuckled when I found them because despite their incredible content 
, I think they’d been printed using a dot matrix printer! At least it wasn’t a frickin typewriter!
Skimming through the essays, a wave of nostalgia swept over me. Where was that Professor now? I wanted to write to him and convey how much he meant to me. He’s the only Prof from Uni that I can remember, as he helped shape so much of how my brain works today. Through his stern, but constructive mentoring, he taught me how to think critically, write with meaning, present arguments with facts, and not emotion. He really impacted the trajectory of my career and made me passionate about Politics and all its nuance and complexity.
Sadly, it turns out that my Prof had passed away in 2012. So I wrote an email describing my admiration and affection for him, sent it to the U of T Poli Sci general email and crossed my fingers. Lo and behold, I heard back that they’d found his son and that they’d forwarded my email to him. AMAZING!
Not long after, his son called to say thank you (I put my cell# in the email, relax) and expressed his appreciation for keeping his dad’s memory alive. We chatted easily for more than half an hour; about his dad, about politics, kids, life and laughed our asses off.
He mentioned that we were so similar in many, many ways and perhaps even we’d attended the same Poli Sci classes together back in 1991/1992. I liked where this was going…
A smart, well-educated, gainfully employed man. WOW! Put a ring on that!
Except he lives in California and is married.
