<Author>Michael</Author>
<Topic>Where I Will Be Five Years from Now</Topic>
<Source></Source>
<Nationality>USA</Nationality>
Back in Indiana in the United States, where I grew up, there was an old saying, "God willing, and the creek don't rise." This meant that if neither God nor a flood prevented it, plans could be made for the future. One should always plan futuristically, but it is never entirely predictable. In fact, if we had the power to predict the future, and knew that our predictions would come true, we might be very frightened. Thus, I can only speculate on where I might be five years from now. I would be in my seventies and would look at my personal future quite differently than the students who might answer the same question. Ideally, if I am still spiritually, physically, and mentally healthy, my long term goal has been to live into my nineties. I announced that wish in a meeting when I was forty-five. Lots of people at the meeting thought that I was certainly a long-time planner and wished me well in succeeding in this goal.
Will I still be teaching in China? Probably not, but I hope to remain professionally active in America and perhaps still internationally. I greatly admire several respected academic colleagues who are very active professionally in their seventies. They remain active in professional organizations, continue to conduct research, write articles, and contribute to books, read in their subject areas to keep up to date, travel professionally, and make professional presentations. Some teach occasional classes for students or in continuing education programs. Hopefully, I will be doing some of the same types of activities to keep my mind alert, and to have an ongoing academic influence on others, both students, and academic colleagues.
In terms of my family life, perhaps I will move closer to one or more of my children. Now, I live far too long a distance from them to be able to visit them and their children as often as I would like. I get along well with my children and grandchildren. Two of my grandchildren will be teenagers five years from now, and I would like to have a regular influence in their lives, as well as for the six younger grandchildren. After all, one of our most important accomplishments in life is being a parent and a grandparent, if we have followed those roles well.
What new plans might I be developing five years from now? Perhaps I will decide that I want to drive across the US and Canada. Perhaps I will be planning to take another trip to see more of the world. Perhaps I will decide that I want to revisit China. Perhaps I will want to revisit Africa where I taught several years ago. Perhaps I will be planning to give a lecture, or take a class for my own interest, or read a novel that I missed reading earlier. Perhaps I will be involved in civic organizations in my community. Perhaps I will sit in the shade and sun and remember the past.
Who knows? We have another saying in America, "Only God knows, and He may not know either."
