When I was going to high school, there were few individuals in town who had a university education. The two doctors, the dentist, the druggist, some of the teachers (although many of the teachers had Normal School and some university courses). A lawyer visited town on a set schedule. The university was, to me, a distant and unknown place. I had no idea what people did at a university.

My father was a commercial fisherman. He needed to have a job when the seasonal fishing was over so he had a barber shop. In that way, not much has changed in rural Canada. In towns with small populations, earning a living from one job is often difficult, if not impossible. Much of the work is seasonal: farming, fishing, tourism, construction. Most people are self-employed.

I never saw myself as a doctor, dentist, or druggist. Someone said I should consider becoming a lawyer because I argued a lot.

I stumbled into university because I had a summer job and my work mates were all going. They suggested I join them. They were the sons of executives with better educations, lived in the city and knew about university.

I think my stumbling into the world of a hundred and fifty students in a classroom amphitheatre with no idea of why I was there except to be at university was pretty typical of many students. How could I possibly know what I wanted to be when I had no idea what there was that I could be?

Has much changed? From what I saw over forty years of teaching in public high school, private college, public universities, I don