Coming up for air

To misquote a famous poet, "November is the cruelest month." This one has been from my perspective as a blogger, anyway.
The demands of planning two big campus events have caused my dispatches from paradise to become fewer and farther between. That doesn't mean our Lake Havasu City campus has become any less paradisaical - the opposite, in fact.
The campus is proud to welcome to our gallery the traveling exhibit "Our Fathers, Our Grandfathers, Our Heroes: the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II." We're just the sixth site in the state - and the only in northwestern Arizona - to host this important educational exhibit, which recounts the story of how Navajo Marines used their native language to baffle the Japanese during the Pacific War.
The exhibit's curator, Zonnie Gorman - daughter of an original Code Talker - will kick things off with a lecture Dec. 1 at 3 p.m. in our 600 building. That will be followed by a reception to mark the exhibit's opening from 5-7 p.m. in the gallery. The public will be able to view the show through Dec. 18, when we close for winter break, and from Jan. 4-8.
On Dec. 3 the campus will transform into a holiday paradise as we as we host our annual lighting extravaganza, MCC Shines. The merry open house will happen Dec. 3 from 5-7 p.m. and include music, treats and photos with Santa with the climax of the evening being the moment Santa flips the switch that turns MCC into a twinkling fairy land. OK, maybe I'm overstating things, but it ought to be a lot of fun.
With great events like these going on, I'm counting on December being better.

Planting a seed

I spent this morning with Admissions Counselor Anne Frazier pitching to a future generation of MCC students at a career fair attended by eighth-graders from Lake Havasu City's two middle schools.
Maybe I forgot what middle school was like, but it seems to me these kids get bigger and more grown up every year. The adult is a lot more evident than the child in the faces of these young teenagers, making their college futures seem even closer than they are.
Anne and I heard from a lot of kids who want to be pediatricians, architects and aeronautical engineers. There were also a number who aspired to careers in theater, music and photography.
I don't know the exact value of pressing a CD of our college catalog into the hand of a 14-year-old girl who wants to become a psychologist, but I hope it will be another little shove down the road she has already set for herself.

New tricks

One question I habitually confront during my visits around the community to recruit new students is "how old is too old to continue one's education and pursue a new career?"
All ages march by my table outside the unemployment office, many of whom appear to be well into retirement age. One who stopped to talk to me said he was age 81, felt great, and was looking for a job just to have something to do.
He was lucky enough to be looking out of choice. Too many people over 50 are there because their life-long careers have been pulled out from under them like a trick chair, leaving them in free fall.
"I'm too old to go to school," they tell me, looking over my laminated program fliers longingly, like pastries in a glass case at the bakery.
But how old is too old?
My job, of course, is to get people to come to school at MCC, so I tell them it's never too late, even though I know full well that never is a long time. On the other hand, 55 is pretty young for the world to throw you away because you can't do the same job anymore.
I was reminded of that today, talking to a former truck driver who was intrigued by MCC's Chemical Dependency Studies program. I talked to him about the value of life experience - which he obviously had a lot of - and how he could use it to help people. I wasn't just giving him a soft sell.

Thrilling

Well, I survived Pumpkin Fest.
It was scary, but I guess you could say it was a "good kind of scary" - like falling out of an airplane.
I felt that same combination of helplessness, excitement and terror as hundreds of parents and little kids in costume streamed and then jammed into our student center last Friday night.
And in spite of the fact that we couldn't make popcorn fast enough to keep up with the demand, everyone seemed to have a good time.
Now it's on to the next thing in this event-mad time of year; from Halloween we go hurtling on to the Christmas season and our annual campus lighting event "MCC Shines."
In the meantime, don't we operate an educational institution here? Good question. In fact, Spring registration has started already and it's the perfect time to register. Don't procrastinate or you might find you're one of the "walking dead" on Jan. 25 with that English class you absolutely had to have is full.