Who were your favorite professors in college?

I think my most life changing influence was Dr. James Robinson because I ended up pursuing my religion degree because of the questions he posed in my “Religions of the World” class: “What do you believe?” Taking that my summer of my Junior year in High school truly sent me down a path of self exploration and a VERY expensive but gratifying pursuit of knowledge.

However, Dr. Kenneth Atkinson made me reflect about religion differently because it’s not just what we grew up with as an influence but how it continues to influence our day to day lives through faith and choices. Right down to my inevitable choice to analyze the old testament and the infinite’s obvious if not pro-polygamy, definitely not anti-polygamy stance.

But ultimately, Dr. Francis Degnin was the defining factor of who I have become because my perception of how who we are is influenced by our experiences and perceptions of the truth. Those many hours of class sessions about who we are as we die, what happens when the self ceases to be within the body, how the cycle of grief functions, and the inevitable tie in I found when it came to my personal challenges with grief in my every day life (job loss, home loss, pet loss, family loss).

I eventually found peace when heart wrenching events happen because I no longer fear them. I say what I feel is right, I don’t make apologies for what I perceive, I accept when I’m wrong, and I move on. There is nothing wrong with being wrong, there is everything to gain in seeing a loss as a “death” of something and recognizing that feeling of grieving is occurring as it would with everything else, even just the truth of losing a job.