Jennifer MacVean:  

Life I got my bachelor's in English and French and went to graduate school in Comparative Literature as planned, and then discovered on close inspection that I did NOT want to be a literature professor. I worked in various levels of technical support for 20 years. I retired from IT and went back to school, new career to be determined. I live less than 3 miles from my mother, who still lives in the house I grew up in. The handsome young man next to me in the picture is my son, Malcolm. I re-married his father in a Zoom wedding in 2020, on the 20th anniversary of our first wedding. We used Zoom because Covid-19 and other things made 2020 a Dumpster fire of a year. School Ah, dear Shadow Mountain, how I hated thee. I was always convinced I was horribly ugly. No one in my class ever asked me out. The classes ahead of us, yes. People tell me I was intimidating but I can't imagine why. I look back now and I realize I wasn't actually hideous, and wish I still had that figure. I had friends in pretty much every social group, although I was a "mod,' or a "WOB" as my college friends call it - a Wearer Of Black. :) I spent most of my time in or around the theatre, and I was happy there. Larry Whitesell is an unwitting father figure to me. I saw more of him for those four years than I did of my parents. I was convinced that athletics and popularity were for people who didn't have brains and academic pedigrees to commend them - and I'm here to tell you that I WAS WRONG. I really wish someone had taken the time to hook me up with some sports I liked and impress upon me the importance of lifelong pursuit of physical activity. It's good for your health and I've noticed that the former (and current) athletes seem to have more self-assurance and a better idea how to handle company politics. And they are successful. That old nod to the brainy geek who will someday own the company that the former jock is slaving away for - is also WRONG in most cases that I've seen. Sure, there are a few Bill Gates, but not as many as there are of the reverse. College I fervently miss my days at Willamette and wish I'd spent the ones I had more productively. The best and most interesting people I've ever made friends with were there. I am fortunate enough to still be in contact with some of them, however sporadic. That's my fault for moving away and never managing to move back, and not being a good correspondent. I loved ASWU and faculty committees. THAT was fascinating and the skills have been useful ever since. I know the power of a Senate or a committee when it is productive and not just belly-gazing and playing around with its own rules of order and procedure - which is a common waste of time in government. I came into my own in Women's Choir with Solveig Holmquist at the helm. Those two years mean a great deal to me, and I keep looking for a decent choir to join so I can keep my instrument "in tune." I'll never forget the computer science folks, who were my friends, roommates, then colleagues. I remember the excitement our sophomore year when he heard that we were getting a new hard drive to handle the email for the entire campus - a 4GB DRIVE!!! WOW!!! LOL It was the size of a shoebox, which was a major improvement over the regular tower-sized 1GB drive which had previously been handling all of the campus' email. That's right - ALL of it, on a single 1 GB hard drive. Of course, my PC in the dorm only had a 20 MB hard drive, if that gives you a sense of...Expand for more