After I graduated from high school, I stayed in my parents’ home and attended college at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. I had considered attending the University in Madison, but decided against it. I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back I think chose that path because it was the “safe” thing to do. I may have been a little scared of moving away from home. Sometimes I think I made the wrong decision and should have gone to school in Madison. By doing so I believe I would have gained a level of maturity sooner and would have broadened my horizons a little more than I did by staying in Milwaukee.

I began my college career majoring in music. One of the reasons I quit music was my percussion professor (percussion was my main instrument) used a very unorthodox technique. A technique vastly different from the style my former instructor (a percussionist with the Milwaukee Symphony) had been teaching me. Had I gone to the University of Wisconsin instead, would I have stayed in the music field? I wonder how that alternate timeline of me going to school in Madison would have turned out. Where would I be and what would I be doing now, had I chosen that path?

One thing I am fairly certain about — it is doubtful I would have the same job I do now. This past week I completed my first year of working as the Web Services Librarian at Edgewood College. A job I very much enjoy, in a location I very much enjoy. Would I now have a job as satisfying as that, had I attended school in Madison?

Even with that uncertainty, if I were given the chance to go back, I believe I would choose the other path.

Thank you for waking me up and filling me in, Bob. Good luck with the next phase of your career.