Hello everyone!

            Keith Compton here folks, literally reporting for duty. What duty? I’ve just become the new addition to the Student Blogging Team. Hmmm . . . SBT . . . sounds like something you’d want to stay far away from huh? Have to talk to my teammates about that, could drop the team part . . . wait a minute! That would leave just . . . well anyway back on the tracks here.

Graduated from Kendall Jr. /Sr. High in 1977 and less than a week later I was working a summer job in Pittsburg for the Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey branch. Landed that through a nationwide competition I had won that was sponsored by the Isaac Walton League. I had been accepted at Syracuse but fell short in making it happen that fall. Wasn’t time for me to go to college, not yet. So I moved to Houston in 1978. I was riding the bull at Gilley’s before the movie came out! For those of you who just said “what movie?” that would be “Urban Cowboy”. Enrolled part time (nights) at Lee College in Baytown, Texas in 1982. Home of the “Fighting Ganders”! What a mascot huh? One class for one semester and I was done. Still wasn’t college time for yours truly. From Houston to Dallas in 1986 for a quick twenty years, and they do go quick mind you, back here in ‘07. While residing in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex opened, owned, and operated a commercial installation company for a number of years. I did earn a small business management certificate from Texas Wesleyan University in Ft Worth. Quite the experience opening and running your own firm is oh yes!

 Upon returning to WNY, employment became an issue as the business I was involved with in Texas, for the better part of two decades, was practically nonexistent here. I might as well have been a palm tree salesman.  And once outside the industry that I was knowledgeable in my experience didn’t seem to matter anywhere else. After four jobs in three years enough was enough! I had to do something . . . . something besides suffer and whine about it that is. The plate was mine and I so needed to step up to it. Doing “what” and “where” about it becoming my questions to answer.

  I decided my “what” to be a higher education and my “where” at Genesee Community College.  I needed a ticket up so I went all in with my hopes, Texas Hold’em style for me of course, and pinned them on punching that ticket here at G. C. C. So in the spring of 2010 I turned myself into a 52 year old college freshman. There’s another “quite the experience oh yes” for ya! Being from Kendall, and starting at the Albion campus, I found myself attending class and doing homework with the children of the “kids” I went to school with! Could a brother please have another check in the “oh yes” column? There’s a life experience few can hold their hands up with me on. And of course a lot of these kids looked just like their parents did when we were in high school. That was borderline wicked spooky! Only time will truly tell how valid my choices, and of course there is nothing like ringing your own bell, but I can’t help but feel that I chose well on both counts, especially the “where” aspect.

In my time I’ve set foot in a lot of different places of business. In jobsites alone the number is well over 1000 not to mention all the peripheral dealings that surround that kind of activity. My ability to quickly “read” a place of business is quite keen. Never in my travels have I dealt with a firm the likes of GCC. A place where every ounce of energy and effort expended is focused on a single goal. This is a place where no one wears their badge of honor any more or less important than the next person, regardless of their position in this affair. The “show” that is performed here on a daily basis is cast with a set of characters that are cut from the most uncommon of cloths. Consummate professionals, many of whom I know for a fact could be plying far more financially lucrative seas. Yet they choose not to. Why . . . . ?  Student nation before you read any further I ask you to please take a moment and really think about that one.

 This facility is no less a jobsite than the commercial sites I used to frequent and it didn’t take me long to see what really goes on here either. What this place is all about. What it really has to offer all of us which is so much more than a higher education.  I’ve got news for you nation, the educational aspect, that’s just the iceberg’s tip around these here parts. Following is my answer to the question from the previous paragraph. I would love to hear yours.

But before I go there is one more question I would like all of you to contemplate or as they say in Texas, “ponder”. Why are we (you) here? I was sure I knew before I enrolled but I didn’t, not even close. We’ll chat more about that one next time.  In business, as in life itself, feedback is everything. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Shoot me an e-mail or just grab me in the hall, be just as fine with me. Actually I’d prefer it, far more personal, nothing like face to facing thoughts and ideas back and forth. I fear its becoming a lost art. Thanks for your time, glad to be on board . . . . Enjoy . . . . And really think about it alright?  

In the Middle of Nowheres

 

Lies a frozen, barren land

Where hope’s only constant is its elusiveness

Where the harshness of the elements put life itself on hold

There you’ll find an outpost, a bastion, emitting a beacon

Garrisoned with dedicated people who are driven by their passions

Whose tireless efforts and boundless energies

Are unified through oneness of purpose

That purpose . . . .  a gift  . . . . to those who seek out the light

The gift of hope

The hope of a new beginning . . . . a new way . . . . a new life

The hope of a chance . . . .

Humanities greatest self-bestowment  

So to All who play host to this magnificent endeavor

Know well that you are all cardholding members, as tenders

Of a most magical place . . . .

 In the middle of nowheres

 

P. S. – Mrs. Barbara Shine, Batavia campus, is caretaker of one of the two original copies of this appreciative acknowledgement. Mrs. Diane Palmer, Albion campus, the other. I’m sure either one of these ladies would love to show it to you. Until next time nation, be good.

The gift of hope. This place is so laced with it, so packed to the rafters with it that it oozes out of the very hallowed ground this facility rests upon.