After a crazy few days of classes, rehearsals, signing forms, and just getting settled in my new job I was surprised it did not take me too long to find a place to live.
It was a small one bedroom apartment in a house with four units.
I am not sure why, but the landlord had to two guys living there move upstairs to another apartment.
It surprises me that I am still friends with many of my first students, the Deadheads and others from my first party in Brockport but even more surprisingly I am still friends with Woody, one of the two guys who had to move before I could move in.
As I look back there are many people I met that first week, month and year both that I still run into and see with from time to time.
Just last week I had a meeting with the handyman who used to work for my first landlord and I still go to the car mechanic who helped me keep my first crappy car going.
Yes I know that there are many others who I have forgotten over the years but when I think back to my first days in Brockport I am lucky to have met so many good people who helped make it easy for me to stay.
I did not know at the time but a strong foundation was being created at the time that would grow and affect my life later on.
At first I was going to stay in Brockport for three years and then move on, but things change and three years became seven, then I got tenure and soon seven years became ten, then twenty and soon I begin my thirtieth year at Brockport.
For the first 15 years working at Brockport I kept my eye on other jobs and averaged one interview a year.
I got some nice trips all over the country and visited some great colleges but also visited some that made me feel lucky to come back to Brockport.
But in 1997 things changed as I met the woman who would become my wife and I also was invited to come to Boston interview for a job at MIT.
I had always enjoyed going on the interviews but this time I was not sure and called them to say I was not interested.
They called me back and begged me to come; they all but said that I had the job.
I had really just started dating Connie and was not sure how things would develop although I knew I really liked her.
I needed to figure out what to do and decided to walk through downtown Brockport to help me think about what I should do.
It was a nice sunny day and I think I ran into everyone in town that I knew on the street that day.
Hi Gary!
How’s it going?
What’s up dude?
Glad to see you.
Nice day, be well . . .
It was on that day that I decided to stay at Brockport and not look for other jobs any more.
I had no way of knowing what would happen, but we really never know about what path our lives will follow.
If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
A few years later I met the guy who took the MIT job and he told me it was a perfect job for him and he lived close enough to walk to work every day and was very happy.
I used to tell people I turned down the job because MIT is right across the Charles River from Fenway Park, and for this life-long Yankees fan it would be torture.
But in reality I guess I had figured out a bit of the meaning of life that day.
Love and Happiness.
It took me a while to while to figure out that although fame and money may be nice, its friends and family are the really are the most important things in life.
What I was looking for was already here and those people who I had met from my first days in town plus all the others I have met over the years helped make Brockport a comfortable place for me to live, even though I bitch and moan from time-to-time.
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