Last Lecture

After 6 years of being at Washburn oh, I knew that I had to be brave if I were going to get my degree. What I mean is I thought I could navigate the classes to get a degree without having to declare one. Ben Washburn announced that they had changed their computer systems degree where some of the classes I took we're no longer part of that degree and couldn't serve as credit to my degree as they were computer courses. So I went in and I asked for Rick Barker to be my advisor because I really liked him in the classes I took. He was energetic and down-to-earth. And I was so worried meeting him in his office to talk about where I was on my way to a degree. I said to him I know I have a lot of fails in my courses and I'm sorry about that. He said don't worry about that. Let's just look to see where you are and what we need to do to get you to where you need to be. It was such a relief to actually hear from a professor that he wasn't going to judge me based on my lack of performance in courses. He was there to help me get back on track and he said it. He clearly stated it. Words are so important to me even now as a poet and a teacher of English, but Rick Barker showed me just how a simple phrase or way of saying something to show someone that you're not judging them but you want to see where they can be is a very human act. It's an act of compassion of non-judgmental Awesome. Being.