I attended the memorial of a great man today: Dr. James V. Taranik. He was my first boss and a mentor to many including myself. I would come back home from college during the summer and work for him on various remote sensing projects. I could go on about how kind he was, how he always encouraged and helped me in my pursuit to become an astronaut, how he was still happy for me when that didn’t pan out. But what I’m really thinking about is how he was today. A man who touched our lives in such a positive way, a man you couldn’t help respecting. When I returned from the Galapagos last year, I knew in my heart that I wanted to study geology and more specifically vulcanology. I had kicked around the idea of grad school for years, but finally it seemed like I had a direction. I remembered how supportive Dr. Taranik had been when I was in college, and being the former Dean of the Mackay School of Mines at UNR, he was the perfect person to talk to about my newfound aspiration. I didn’t get that chance. I waited and put it off, assuming I would have time this summer; it just reinforces for me the old adage: don’t ever wait. But listening today to all the stories and kind words about a man I’d always admired, I know that come what may, he would have been proud of me.
2004-06-29
1/500 sec, f 6.7, ISO 64, 7.18 mm
0 comments:
Post a Comment