WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.860 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.860 --> 00:00:05.987 align:middle line:84% Thank you, Bojan, that means a lot. 00:00:05.987 --> 00:00:06.820 align:middle line:90% Check's in the mail. 00:00:06.820 --> 00:00:09.850 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:09.850 --> 00:00:13.060 align:middle line:90% Bienvenidos todos. ¡Cincuenta! 00:00:13.060 --> 00:00:16.570 align:middle line:90% That's a pretty cool number. 00:00:16.570 --> 00:00:20.290 align:middle line:84% I can't believe that I've actually 00:00:20.290 --> 00:00:22.570 align:middle line:84% run the gamut of all of those years. 00:00:22.570 --> 00:00:26.680 align:middle line:84% I came to U of A. I was born in Nogales. 00:00:26.680 --> 00:00:30.070 align:middle line:84% Not exactly a college prep experience. 00:00:30.070 --> 00:00:33.970 align:middle line:84% And I started the U of A, not as a university. 00:00:33.970 --> 00:00:36.370 align:middle line:84% I didn't know how to come to university. 00:00:36.370 --> 00:00:39.340 align:middle line:84% We didn't have a lot of college recruiters. 00:00:39.340 --> 00:00:45.700 align:middle line:84% And instead, what I did know how to do is come to 13th grade, 00:00:45.700 --> 00:00:50.350 align:middle line:84% and that's how I came to college as what I could handle. 00:00:50.350 --> 00:00:53.770 align:middle line:84% And when I came here, what was thrilling 00:00:53.770 --> 00:00:55.210 align:middle line:90% was not my first year. 00:00:55.210 --> 00:00:57.860 align:middle line:84% That was, you know, you get through your first year. 00:00:57.860 --> 00:01:00.670 align:middle line:84% But when I signed up for classes for my second year, 00:01:00.670 --> 00:01:02.200 align:middle line:90% sophomore year. 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:06.460 align:middle line:84% The truth of it is, I was going through the U of A catalog, 00:01:06.460 --> 00:01:08.440 align:middle line:84% and I went to English department. 00:01:08.440 --> 00:01:11.380 align:middle line:84% I had grown up in a bilingual household. 00:01:11.380 --> 00:01:13.720 align:middle line:84% I struggled with freshman English. 00:01:13.720 --> 00:01:18.010 align:middle line:84% I thought I'd never come to an English department again ever, 00:01:18.010 --> 00:01:21.340 align:middle line:84% but by accident, I landed on an English department. 00:01:21.340 --> 00:01:22.990 align:middle line:90% And I will never forget this. 00:01:22.990 --> 00:01:24.760 align:middle line:84% And one of the funny things is to tell you 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:27.280 align:middle line:90% how far back it goes. 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:33.160 align:middle line:84% English 9, introduction to poetry writing. 00:01:33.160 --> 00:01:34.660 align:middle line:90% Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:01:34.660 --> 00:01:35.365 align:middle line:90% No final. 00:01:35.365 --> 00:01:39.940 align:middle line:90% 00:01:39.940 --> 00:01:41.440 align:middle line:90% I signed right up. 00:01:41.440 --> 00:01:43.480 align:middle line:90% Right under that. 00:01:43.480 --> 00:01:46.330 align:middle line:84% Introduction-- English 10, introduction 00:01:46.330 --> 00:01:47.320 align:middle line:90% to fiction writing. 00:01:47.320 --> 00:01:49.060 align:middle line:90% Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:01:49.060 --> 00:01:51.280 align:middle line:90% No final. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:52.615 align:middle line:90% I have found my major. 00:01:52.615 --> 00:01:58.960 align:middle line:90% 00:01:58.960 --> 00:02:01.180 align:middle line:84% I thought these were the coolest classes ever, 00:02:01.180 --> 00:02:04.390 align:middle line:84% and they were until the end of the first semester 00:02:04.390 --> 00:02:07.600 align:middle line:90% or so when Bill Roecker-- 00:02:07.600 --> 00:02:09.580 align:middle line:84% I think, Bob Houston, you might remember him-- 00:02:09.580 --> 00:02:12.490 align:middle line:84% Bill Roecker was my first poetry teacher, 00:02:12.490 --> 00:02:17.920 align:middle line:84% and Peter Wild was my first fiction teacher. 00:02:17.920 --> 00:02:22.570 align:middle line:84% What I love about that is that jumble. 00:02:22.570 --> 00:02:26.380 align:middle line:84% And even though I had maybe a bilingual sensibility 00:02:26.380 --> 00:02:30.670 align:middle line:84% in terms of language, taking both poetry and fiction, 00:02:30.670 --> 00:02:32.680 align:middle line:90% the joke was on me. 00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:35.740 align:middle line:84% It showed me there could be a sense of bilinguality 00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:38.710 align:middle line:84% in the arts that you could go all sorts of ways. 00:02:38.710 --> 00:02:41.740 align:middle line:84% That if in a word I could see all sorts of other ways 00:02:41.740 --> 00:02:45.670 align:middle line:84% to see a thing, I could do that in the arts as well. 00:02:45.670 --> 00:02:48.050 align:middle line:90% And that there were no limits. 00:02:48.050 --> 00:02:51.400 align:middle line:84% And as an undergraduate, I started taking classes. 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:54.040 align:middle line:84% Peter Wild, took a lot of classes 00:02:54.040 --> 00:03:00.920 align:middle line:84% from Peter Wild, Dick Shelton, Bob Houston, Steve Orlen. 00:03:00.920 --> 00:03:03.200 align:middle line:84% And I remember it wasn't just the teaching, 00:03:03.200 --> 00:03:04.190 align:middle line:90% it was the environment. 00:03:04.190 --> 00:03:05.630 align:middle line:90% This is a great turnout tonight. 00:03:05.630 --> 00:03:07.860 align:middle line:90% I thank you all for coming. 00:03:07.860 --> 00:03:09.950 align:middle line:84% And I remember the anticipation of the writers 00:03:09.950 --> 00:03:11.660 align:middle line:90% that were coming through. 00:03:11.660 --> 00:03:15.530 align:middle line:84% Men and women like Mr. Root here. 00:03:15.530 --> 00:03:18.830 align:middle line:84% The anticipation-- the anticipation. 00:03:18.830 --> 00:03:22.340 align:middle line:84% We were all on the verge of something, and now here we are. 00:03:22.340 --> 00:03:25.010 align:middle line:84% I'm going to start by reading a quick poem. 00:03:25.010 --> 00:03:26.840 align:middle line:84% I know this is a celebratory night, 00:03:26.840 --> 00:03:29.880 align:middle line:90% and that's what I want it to be. 00:03:29.880 --> 00:03:33.568 align:middle line:90% And if I can just find my-- 00:03:33.568 --> 00:03:34.610 align:middle line:90% what was I going to read? 00:03:34.610 --> 00:03:36.160 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHS]