School Story
For those who know me, I am still verbose, will attempt to summarize.
I started Elementary school in Warroad, MN, after Kindergarten of the Air (radio from Winnipeg). In 2d grade, family of origin (FOO) moved to Bloomington, MN (grades 2+ to slightly <4. Father's employment at International Milling-now Multifoods).
FOO moved to Hamburg, NY in 1958 when Intl Milling decentralized-Dad was Eastern Region Engineer (grades 4-11, 2 different public school systems: Frontier Central and Hamburg Central). Intl Milling recentralized in 1965, which brought us back to MN and Edina. I had an excellent experience in Edina, even though the class was ~2x the size of my class in Hamburg (664, if I recall correctly, vs ~ 325). Interesting contrasts, BTW: in NY, the State Regents diploma, for which State syllabi and State exams were provided, opened the doors to colleges, while here the U still had open enrollment....and of course we don't have the multi-tiered HS diploma schema.
ANYWAY, 4 years at the U and a MicB BA (no College of Biological sciences in 1970-degree was constructed in CLA from Microbiology graduate courses and minors in philosophy & humanities-foreshadowing later events) and no acceptance to Med School...alternate list but no cigar...I received the letter from uncle Sam, reported for my physical and failed to pass vision testing...hmmm..I have my private pilot's license, granted earlier the same year....so to the farm near Warroad to figure out next steps....which led me to Pharmacy, a profession practiced by my maternal grandfather and my Mother, and which had always been my "alternate plan."
I was licensed in 1973 and purchased the pharmacy that had been my grandfather's before his death and that was sold to the then-owner 16 years previously by my grandmother. I practiced Pharmacy in Warroad from 1973-79, then sold to my Mother and moved to Thief River Falls. 2 years later, I started Law School at the U of ND in Grand Forks (more paternal family hx in that geographic area). Law School wasn't my cup of tea, however, and after 1.5 yr, I left, partly because our son was on the way.
As it turned out, this was a good move because he was born with cardiac issues and because I was a Pharmacist in the GF hospital, I was able to visit ad lib., or nearly so. My spouse and I purchased a pharmacy in central MN, a very poor decision in the Reagan era...when the area produced a bumper crop of corn and the price per bushel went through the floor, it was the last straw for a shaky 4 y.o. business and we moved back to Edina.
A couple of years later, I finally discussed my longstanding, deeply felt call to ministry (I felt called as early as elementary school) with my spouse and church staff, then began the Presbyterian walk toward ordination.....which led to my coming out as a gay man (having grown up in the shaming, pre-Stonewall days, I (wrongly) felt I could NEVER come out and MUST act "straight"). Our subsequent acrimonious divorce (from both my spouse and the Presbyterians) led me to Mayflower Community Congregational United Church of Christ (UCC) and United Theological Seminary (UTS).. (See, I DID come back to the original question)...
UTS was and is a welcoming, wonderful place...a place that was and is affirming and encouraging. I was a part-time Master of Divinity student from 1998 until 2009, when I earned my degree. I am pursuing ordination in the UCC; what God intends for me, I will see....I have experienced the unexpected and learned to follow my heart, rather than construct plans....I have knocked on figurative doors and discovered they opened and the Spirit propelled me through them to new places...
An aside: it took a long time to walk through the (normally) 3-year program at UTS partly because of the protracted divorce and her subsequent death, partly because the children required extra attention during the entire time, including after her death, my son's multiple heart surgeries, and not the least that I was very active in the Pharmacy association, held FT executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry, and was self-funded (cash basis)....
OK, enough of this.... :)
