...what a Long Strange Trip It's Been

I started my college career by pursuing a degree in physics at Johns Hopkins University.  It soon became clear that this was (1) boring and (2) required work.  It was time to switch to math.  Math was (1) boring but (2) did not require much work.  After four glorious years of playing pinball machines studying, a B.A. was about to become mine.  However, four years of math and physics was enough to convince me that there must be something better to do with my life; just what escaped me.

A semester before graduation, the idea of going to law school arose.  Law had several advantages: it wasn't remotely related to math or science; the tuition for an in-state school was low; lawyers make lots of money.  Based on this in-depth analysis, I decided to go to University of Maryland Law School.

Within a year, it was obvious that law school was similar to undergraduate school in several ways.  It was (1) boring and (2) required work.  However, momentum is a wonderful thing.  I decided to keep going for the degree, even though it was clear that law was not for me.

Mid-way though law school, I got a part time job working for an insurance agent that also did a little pension work.  The agent employed a semi retired part time actuary to do the pension valuations.  Now, this actuary was a character.  He belonged to a food co-op, was anti-nuclear (way back in the 1970's), and was just fun to be around.  I decided that actuaries must be the most interesting people in the world.  I wanted to be an actuary!

What is an actuary?  With apologies to my actuary friends, actuarial science is kind of like statistics, but not as much fun.  If you'd like to know more.....why in the world would you like to know more?  In any case, my infatuation with actuaries was as rational as my other college choices.

After three glorious years of partying studying, a J.D. was about to become mine.  Or so I thought.  However, there was a requirement that not only must one's overall GPA (grade point average) be 67 or better, but one's GPA for each year must be 67 or better.  Having slacked off the last semester, my last year's GPA was about 66.7.  Oh no!

Here's where I demonstrated my potential to be a great lawyer.  I carefully perused the detailed graduation requirements, and found out that, when computing an annual GPA, any classes taken during the previous summer semester count in the next year's GPA.  I had in fact taken one course the previous summer and had done reasonably well - so that my last year's GPA was actually a few hairs over 67.  I pointed this out to the faculty, they held a meeting, and determined I was correct.  Justice prevailed - or perhaps they just wanted to get rid of me.

Now it was time to actually find a job.  Still thinking that I wanted to be an actuary, I found an ad in the paper for a position as an actuarial assistant at The Wyatt Company.  They were impressed by my law degree, and hired me.  Now the reality of actuarial work begin to sink in.  In many ways it was similar to college.  It was (1) boring and (2) required work.  Fortunately, chance smiled on me once again.  One of my bosses (thank you, George Berish!) handed me an APL computer programming manual and said "Write a program".  I fell in love with computers, and haven't looked back since.
 
 

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