Lesson from the Renaissance Professor

            I went to community college for a couple of years before eventually transferring to the University of Central Florida (save some money that way!). One of the many classes that I took there was on Renaissance Era Europe; I’ve always found the Renaissance period absolutely fascinating and this class satisfied one of my social studies requirements. Interestingly enough, the thing that most sticks with me from that class isn’t what I learned about the Renaissance, the actual subject of the course. What most sticks with me is a story the professor told us.

            The professor of this class looked very much like an academic. While I was sitting there wearing one of my many colorful Hawaiian T-shirts, and while several of the other students in my class were also dressed very casually (some showing up with pajama bottoms and hoodies), the professor was always dressed in a suit. Not like James Bond, to be clear, but usually in a tweed jacket with a tie. He also wore glasses and had white hair, so yeah, he looked like the stereotype of a professor. I even remember bumping into him at a store once, with him smiling and saying, “Hi Justin,” and being jarred when I saw him wearing denim from head to toe rather than his usual outfit.

            Anyway, I remember him telling us this story near the beginning of class. He talked about his sister, someone who was also very much the insanely smart academic. The professor told us about how his sister had earned a scholarship to Brown University. And this wasn’t just any scholarship. Not only would she be getting her Master’s degree for free, but would also be getting room and board, with a stipend. So basically his sister would practically be paid to get a Master’s degree.

            The professor’s sister turned down the offer.

            You may be thinking, “Why?!” At around the time she was given this amazingly phenomenal offer, she was also engaged to a man who eventually became her husband. Both the sister and her fiancé had Bachelor’s degrees, and the husband didn’t have any desire to go further in his education (I’m not sure what his career was in). But apparently while he was content with his Bachelor’s, he felt insecure (to say the least) about the prospect of his future wife having more formal education than him (and from a prestigious Ivy League university such as Brown nonetheless). So the fiancé gave her an ultimatum, saying, “Either reject the scholarship and don’t go to Brown, or we’re done.”

            And she did. She chose an insecure man over higher education.

            I remember the professor sighing when he told us this story. His eyes seemed to say, “That son of a bitch.”

            So in a college class I was very interested in (and which I aced!), I took more away from that story than from anything in the textbook or the actual lectures. I thought to myself, “If I ever have a wife who wants to get a Master’s degree or whatever her goal may be, I’m not going to be anything like the man in that story. I am going to cheer her on and support her in any way I can.”

            And honestly, I think that may have been a better lesson for me to learn than anything else in that class.

Note: If you'd like to read my fantasy novel-in-progress "The Princess of Infinite Tomorrows," check it out at https://princessofinfinitetomorrows.blogspot.com/.