God has some interesting ways of telling you when to move and when to stay.  A year after Diane and I were married, we tried to leave Spartan Village, Michigan State University, family and friends to pursue teaching careers in Illinois. We had both  completed Bachelor’s degrees and were looking at next steps.  I had been accepted into a Masters Degree program at the University of Illinois; the goal was preparation for teaching math at the community college level.  Diane had applied for high school teaching jobs all over the Champaign-Urbana area.

In the early summer of 1973 we made a trip past Chicago and down highway 57 to finalize living and school arrangements.  First we checked out University housing, found it to be acceptable, and said we would be back to leave a deposit after we checked in with the Math Department.  There, we were stunned by a secretary who told us they had no job for me – the funding for the community college training had been terminated by President Nixon, so they were closing up the program.   

That was just weird.  First of all, the whole site had that slightly unreal feel of a familiar setting where you had never been before. Second, it didn’t seem right that the Department waited for us to get there to tell us we had no job and would be paying out-of-state tuition for courses that were no longer part of a degree plan.  And third, the whole disappointing turn of events was the fault of the President of the United States! What did Mr. Nixon have against me? I think I even voted for him.

We were certainly happy we had not left a deposit with the housing office.  And we were very glad we had not had any moving sales or unloaded prized crates and homemade furniture. 

Upon returning to East Lansing, my advisor in the Math Department said they would be glad to offer me a teaching assistantship to fund a Master’s Degree, but I would be on my own to take education courses.  We settled back into Spartan Village for two more years.  Diane landed a teaching aide job the first year and then a full time position in Laingsburg starting that second year. And we stayed.

It is also interesting that daughter Linnea now works at University of Illinois – Chicago, and our niece Katie works for U of I – Champaign.  They are both MSU grads and I don’t think Illini blood is seeping in yet.