The word came down from on High--from the Ohio State Bureau of Voc Rehab. I was too disabled for further education to be worth the State's money. Mr. Wheeler's words struck like a baseball bat: “I'm denying your request that the Bureau send you on to finish college out of state.”
I returned to my writing. Several years later found me in Berkeley with a near blank-check scholarship from California's rehab program. At Cal I sweated my way though years of electrical engineering and computer classes. And wound up with a 20-year career in computers.
“Philosophy?” a friend said after a layoff and a repetitive motion injury ended my career. “Why not graduate work in computers? Something practical ... !”
“I still haven't found out how far I can reach,” was my response.
