Become A
Forester
As the webmaster, I have the
privilege sharing with you some of my personal experiences in becoming a
forester. Most of us got to know each other as the outcome of the College Joint
Entrance Exam. It ended up receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry.
For me, there are some roots way back to my childhood that got me into this
career.
The Childhood Playground
As you can see in the following
photos, Chitou has been one of my favorite excursion areas since I was a little
boy. My first visit to Chitou dated back to 1966 when I was six years old. I
remember my mom brought with us a full basket of delicious foods she made for
the picnic. Sadly, God took her away from us two years after these memorable pictures
were taken. I love nature. I like to be out in the woods. You probably don’t
believe that I grew up as a shy boy. One of the reasons that I chose forestry
as my major is that I thought that I would be dealing with trees instead of
people. Unlike people, trees don’t talk back. Ironically, years later I spent
most of my time at work dealing with people when I was the Director of Chitou
Forest Recreation Area of the NTU Experimental Forest.
A Romance Movie
In 1974, I happened to see a movie 瓊瑤電影 女朋友. Many of the scenes in the movie were shot in Chitou. The
story of the movie stuck in my head that later led me to the decision on
choosing forestry as my major. I thought working in the woods as a career is
kind of cool! It was during my tenure as the Director of Chitou that the
Forestry Exhibit at the 2nd floor of the Administration Building in
Chitou was turned to a storage room and the greenhouse in the Nursery was rebuilt
to a modern facility, which can be seen in the movie. Here you can see how little
things can change lives. My favorite movie is Forrest Gump 阿甘正傳. Sometimes I feel myself like Forrest (his girlfriend is
Jenny, of course). "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what
you're gonna get."
A TV Show
When working on my masters at NTU,
we were invited to a TV program commemorating the Arbor Day of 1985. For me, it
was a last minute notice as they needed one more person to make the team. As a
result, someone loaned me a shirt and a tie so that I was able to dress up to
the studio. Amazingly, we won! A couple of days later, they gave me my share of
the cash prize, more than the monthly amount of scholarship we were receiving
in graduate school at that time. The two teams competing against each other are
mostly graduates of NTU Forestry. I believe most of them are still active in
Taiwan forestry.
A Public TV Program
In summer 1986, Jenny and I became a
forest specialist with the NTU Experimental Forest. As a new employee, you
won’t be surprised how many tasks they tried to assign you. We were charged
with assisting the filming of a Public TV program 松鼠與紅樹頭. You should remember that the squirrel had been an issue
for forestry in Taiwan when we were college students. The manuscript of the
program was already written. The filming crew needed people acting in the film.
I got picked. That’s why you see me in the show. I was just a rookie forester
at that time. They had me do most of the interview anyway.
TTV Evening News
1995 was a tough year for me. By
then I had been serving as the Director of Chitou for four years. Sometimes I
felt kind of abandoned as I spent hours after hours at work and it seemed there
was no end. My kids didn’t like to go to Chitou with me on weekends. They knew
I would be at work and have no time to play with them. It was the Double Tenth
National Day of the year, TTV wanted to interview someone representing the NTU
Experimental Forest regarding the release of some national forest lands to
current tenants. It was a holiday and of course nobody went to work at the
headquarters in Chushan on that day. TTV would be
unhappy and it would hurt our relationship with the media if I turned it down
with the excuse of not being authorized for interview. So, I was on TV, again. In fact, I never got
to see the interview broadcast until 2012. I remember later on that day I drove
to Taipei to see my father who was undergoing a surgery for his liver
cancer. Eventually, I stepped down from
the Director position a few days before my father passed away at the turn of
1996. Although facing all kind of challenges, I never regret my time spent with
the NTU Experimental Forest. It helps to shape me who I am today.
Always a Forester
I used to think I’ll spend my entire
life as a field forester in rural Taiwan. Coming to U.S. and eventually staying
permanently was somewhat not on the plan. In my retrospect, there is nothing that
I can do more appropriate than marrying Jenny. You all remember Jenny and I did
not talk to each other much during our college years. From another aspect, we
had been trying to get to know each other for four years in college. Going to
college together does help in maintaining our relationship. However, marriage
is an ongoing process. Every day we learn something and make adjustment. What’s
important is that we never lose faith on each other. The picture of Jenny and I
visiting the Badlands National Park was used as our Facebook profile photo. My
comment for this picture is “What a forester can do in badlands?” Today as an
educator, I wear forestry T-shirt and work with students in forestry field
station, a picture resembling the front page photo of our website. “In
forestry, we plan for decades; for education, we plan for centuries.”
We Are the Class of 1982
Finally, I like to present you a
slide show that is dedicated to our everlasting friendship. The photos are what
we have collected in the online albums. The background music is the song “Snow
of New York” by Chris de Burgh that I shared with you at a Christmas a couple
years ago. Please join me and show our appreciation to 詹進發 who
has kept this group together. Little Ant always carries something bigger than
himself, and most of the time for others instead of for himself. Sometimes we
have to remind him that family comes first. The day after our two back-to-back 30th
anniversary reunions, he lost his father to years of chronic disease. Whenever
you think of our class of 1982, send Ant an email or give him a call. With his
leadership, we look forward to many more decades of reunions to come.
老Ｋ, 2012 Father’s Day, Nacogdoches, Texas