Anita McCormick:  

I went to UC Santa Cruz as an undergrad and spent a year studying abroad in the north of England during that time. I then went to UCLA, got a PhD in English, got a job as a lecturer and taught there for 25 years. I loved teaching, except for grading papers, because I had very small classes and got to know my students pretty well. I was lucky enough to teach people from California and from around the world, people of any number of races, football players, basketball players--a wide spectrum of people I'd never have met if I wasn't lucky enough to teach at a school like UCLA. Oh, why not mention it; I don't think anybody's going to get this far in my "story": I got the Distinguished Lecturer award and felt I'd helped hundreds of students. I was lucky. I had a very satisfying work life. I spent so much time on campus that UCLA began to feel like my home town, especially after my son was born in the hospital. When I die I'd really like my ashes to be distributed on the 5th floor of the Research Library, but will probably have to settle for the Yuba River. I married Don McCormick from the class of 1972, the guy who annoyed people by coming to eat lunch with me in the senior circle. We have a son who is the center of the universe . . . he's great . . . and are now retired and living in Nevada City, CA. I developed Meniere's disease about 12 years ago and that's made for some massive changes in my life, but if you live long enough, something breaks down. I used to think I wanted to write. Now I think I just want to read. And read. And read. Some people use their brains for useful things. Mine is cluttered up with information about Victorian novels and life in 19th century Britain, though right now I'm working in my odd hours on a project about British women's lives in World War I and may someday get b...Expand for more