Rick Paige

RickPaigeHowRickPaigeHow2Everyone has them, people who briefly intersect your life and then disappear. Most have little lasting impact, but there is always one, maybe two, in everyone’s life that some way or other causes a lasting impression. Maybe even changes your life forever. Perhaps it was the classmate you barely knew that talked you into taking a class that became a lifelong passion. Or possibly it was the neighbor you didn’t know very well, who badgered you into attending some social event where you met your future spouse. For me it was the admission counselor at Southern Connecticut State University. He managed to accomplish both for me and, in one of life’s many ironies, doesn’t even know it.

But first, some background. In high school, somewhere after sports and hangin’ with friends, I had an interest in most of the sciences. Trouble was I hadn’t found my passion, didn’t know what direction to take my life. I was actually envious of those friends who already knew, with great certainty, what they wanted to become. So when I started college at Southern I enrolled, without a lot of conviction, as a Biology major. For three semesters I studied hard, made good grades, and yet remained uninspired. I knew I didn’t want to go into medicine or teaching. Marine biology seemed attractive, exploring the deep like Cousteau, but after another semester of memorizing anatomy and phylogeny it became clear biology just wasn’t my career path. But what was? This was terribly frustrating. I may not have known where to point my “career bus”, but somehow I knew with certainty the best place to find and prepare for it was college. This despite several college buddies who, without any more direction than me, had no such conflict – who felt college was a four-year vacation at their parent’s expense before having to join the “real world”. They couldn’t understand my anxiety at all. So they were especially surprised when I left school after 3 semesters.

I went home and took whatever jobs I could find. Not because I liked them or expected to find a career in them, but hoping to give myself time enough to find a subject that inspired me. A year and a half later I found myself reenrolling at Southern. I still hadn’t found my life’s direction, but I was ready to move forward (and it didn’t hurt that my athletic eligibility was ticking away). This is when I met the admission counselor whose name I probably forgot a week later and yet made an impact that changed my life. Only neither of us knew it at the time.

Southern has this “silly” (or so I thought) policy for readmits without a major (like me) that requires the student to attend a one-on-one counseling session. During my session I told the counselor I wanted to use a couple of semesters to take all my electives up front. I wanted to try subjects I had never been exposed to, like journalism, media, sociology, urban planning, business, maybe even theater! I was simply trying to find my passion. He listened, asked a lot of questions about me, my likes and dislikes, all the while looking at copies of my high school and college transcripts. In the end he signed me up for many of the electives I asked for, but before we finished told me there was one class he really thought I should give a try. It was Principles of Geology, the intro class for geology majors. “Rick, talking with you I can tell you have an affinity for the natural sciences, and I think this course could be a real eye-opener for you. It’s taught by the department chairman, a good friend, who is an excellent instructor and mentor” he said. “Alright, put me down for it as long as you enroll me in these other electives” I replied, not getting too excited about yet another science course.

Well, Dr. Drobnyk, the Earth Sciences department chairman, was indeed an excellent instructor, and I owe him a great deal of gratitude for introducing me (finally!) to my academic and professional passion. I signed up as a geology major as soon as the course ended. Even more remarkable, I met my wife, Sarah, in that class! A biology major, she was taking one of her out-of-department science requirements (we never crossed paths while I was a biology major). We’ve been married now 23 years.

Now armed with the direction I had been seeking, I raced through the program, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 1982. Since then there have been many other teachers, professors, and colleagues who have continued to enrich my life’s work. But I often think back to that brief encounter with a wise counselor who saw something in me I didn’t even know was there. If only he knew what he started that day.

Rick Paige
Geologist

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