hey, check this out

I may have mentioned here one of the past three posts that I began my chase after a Bachelor’s Degree at Cape Cod Community College in the fall of 1967. The intention to hold a Bachelor of Arts in Education and/or English four years later. Yet, there I was, wicked long hair and flowing graduation gown, walking up to the front of the line to be handed my Bachelor of Science in Social Welfare by the President of Salem State College the middle of June, 1974.

The plan to finish the last two years at Salem State, with a 1971 commencement, found me bouncing among a handful of apartments in Salem, one in Beverly, two or three in Marblehead, time back with my parents in Wareham, time with a sister in Barnstable on the Cape – a long tennis ball bounce back to CCCC. It was the sixites, there were a lot of drugs involved. Then, back from one of those excursions down the Cape, back in Salem and ready to get serious for sure this time (not), I ran into my friend Bob Hansen in an academic corridor, and after “Heys” and “What’s up’s,” he said, “They started a new major while you were gone. It’s Social Welfare. You should check it out.”

I like the idea of “whimsy.” I like how the word itself sounds whimsical. I am quietly stunned how a passing conversation changed everything. Everything. I’m not here typing on this very keyboard in San Diego today without, “Hey. You should check it out.” And amidst the people I’ve hopefully honored with my stories the past three days. The folks yet to come. Every wonderful supervisor who has helped me grow as a helper. Maybe even the crummy ones. Great agencies and not-so-great agencies. Showing me the right way to do it, showing me the not-so-right way to do it. To offer, and be, social welfare.

One of the young women dropping in to hang out with me in the office in the guidance department at North Reading High School sent me a Facebook message a couple of years ago – “I never would have graduated high school without you.” I had no idea, the way I’ve pretty much had no idea about most everything. But I was honored to hear that. Other feedback and thanks along the way as well.

My friend Cory says you do the right stuff and you’re “in for the chance.” In my case, probably because I “checked it out,” the chance to be of some good use. Some of the time.