These are words sent as an email to the guys in my Unitarian Universalist Men’s Group
Hello, amigos!
Here, below, are a few hard-earned insights, which I find myself reviewing in the autumn of my years. Maybe, I did manage to learn a thing or two about the world that we are all asked to happily live in? But, maybe, not?
Parents: Don’t send your smart, high school students to be crushed at any institute of technology (MIT, Cal-Tech, Stanford, etc.) without first sending them to a tough, technical prep school to get ready.
Being a top achiever at a local, French-Canadian, high school in Lowell in 1957 had gotten me a scholarship to LTI, which is now called U-Mass Lowell, but I was hardly prepared for the real world that I was facing at the time. However, I did not know it.
Apparently, I ought to have first studied and, successfully, passed the array of New York’s State Board of Regents exams in chemistry, physics, math and English before diving into that challenging world. It was a killer experience and I just barely made it to the finish line.
Note: I have been reflecting on the past lately. Here, below, is an excerpt from a diary entry from long ago. It was not a pretty picture as my favorite, but now departed sister, Denise, was fond of saying.
Please, take care, and remember that an institute of technology is not four years of care-free, party-time living. Jim Belushi of “Animal House” fame might find the academic environment a bit daunting when mid-term exams appeared. Some students actually cracked under the pressure!
Paul
See the page called: XX