OT: Unexpected / Serendipitous Results From Attending Virginia Tech

Fifty years ago, this month I graduated from Virginia Tech. This is the kind of event that can make a guy get reflective. I could have asked what is the biggest regret or what I what is the biggest positive from having gotten from my time there, but, instead, I thought I would share what lead me to VPI and how small choices made huge impact in my life.

My Dad was in the Army and in January of 1964, he was transferred from Fort Lee, Virginia, to an assignment in Frankfurt, Germany. We could not go with him immediately because housing was not available. After a six-month delay, we followed him and I started my senior year at Frankfurt American High School. Toward the end of that Fall, I took a personality test to help me figure out what I wanted to study in college. That test indicated that I might like to study Forestry. In my naivety, I was thinking someone was going to pay me to go camping. The only college in Virginia to offer Forestry was some school called Virginia Polytechnic Institute. I think it was the only place that I applied. I enrolled in the ROTC program; the Vietnam War was going on and, if I was going, I wanted to go as an officer.

I came to Tech having no idea what was involved in being in the Corps of Cadets. I also arrived on the campus never having seen it. I don't think I had ever been any closer to Blacksburg than the Skyline Drive. Even then it was a beautiful campus, however, most of my classes were on the opposite side of the campus from the upper Quad. Oh, those chilly walks from the Upper Quad to the Greenhouse labs!

Another surprise was that Forestry seemed to be focused on the pulp and paper industry. So instead of being paid to go camping surrounded by the peaceful sounds of wildlife, Forestry was preparing me to go bulldozing through the woods (insert images from Avatar with those massive machines crushing everything in the way). I ended up switching to Horticulture with the idea of doing landscape design, but before leaving Forestry I learned of two courses that used aerial photography to measure and identify objects on the ground.

So, the serendipity is even though I was clueless in choosing my major at a college I had never visited and participating in an ROTC program I had no clue about, I graduated from a school which I am proud to be associated. The Forestry aerial photography courses led to my specialty focus in the Air Force and later as a Department of Defense civilian. My abilities were valued; I met some great people; and I was able to travel internationally. Life has been good.

What about you? Do you have any unexpected or serendipitous stories of from attending Va Tech?