I’ve dedicated my entire life to Cleveland. When I was in school, I student-taught with Dr. Thomas in Diversified class, and that’s when I discovered my passion for teaching. When I graduated, my goal was to come back and teach. So, I went out and started a practice, and as soon as a position came open, I applied. I started working at Cleveland four years out of school. So, as far as influencing my life, I’ve dedicated my entire life to this profession. Technically, I started in ’92, so I’ve been associated with Cleveland for 30 years.

When I was in school, the cadaver lab was interesting because it had no ventilation. The room was terrible from that standpoint, and you’re going in there and you’ve never done this before. There’s a body lying there, and you’re trying to figure out all this stuff. But we had ladies walking down the street right there on the street level. And one woman stopped and looked in, and we leaned the body up and waved at her, and she took off running. But the thing is she actually ran into the other side of Cleveland’s building. We thought we were in trouble, but nothing ever came of that.

My graduation was kind of fun. I have no idea which of my classmates put the champagne up on the stage, but they had probably 10 or 12 bottles up there spread out. I don’t even remember at what point during the ceremony, but it was after we called names and sat down. They started popping the champagne, and I’m down there fiddling with mine, and I kept hearing pop, pop, pop, pop. I was the last one because I couldn’t get it to come off. I have no idea what happened to the bottles afterwards. I don’t know who went and got them. Dr. Cleveland never said anything. Dr. Beckley never said anything. I don’t know if anyone got upset.