Washington College Magazine
The Gifts We Are Given
Christine Pabon
Tom Pabon
by Christine Pabon
Editor's Note: This spring, Tom and Christine Pabon, both of whom have taught in the department of foreign languages since the mid-1960s, announced their retirement. At a reception in their honor, Christine delivered the following remarks.
When a rather frightened 17-year-old from New York City arrived at Washington College in September of 1958, she had absolutely no intention of remaining there for the next 48 years of her life. Indeed for at least 30 of those years, when asked where she was from, she proudly maintained, "I'm from New York."
Eventually, though without entirely identifying herself with small-town America, she came to respond happily, "I'm from Chestertown, Maryland." But even that is not a true statement; a more authentic statement would be, "I'm from Washington College," for, as corny as that sounds, I left my parents to go to Washington College where, give or take a few years, I have been nurtured as both student and faculty member ever since.
In my first semester as a student, I took my first French literature course. We were reading Camus' L'Etranger, a work only 16 years old at that time. In one of our classes, before beginning the discussion, our professor took a moment to comment on the beauty of that crisp, sunny fall day; and then, after a reflective pause, she added, "How extraordinarily fortunate we are to have as our principal responsibility for the next hour to talk about the themes and ideas in this remarkable little work."
She said "we," "...how fortunate we are...," and that thought has remained with me during both the joyful and less joyful moments of my teaching career. To spend one's life and work in the world of metaphor, to explore vital questions, to transmit a heritage of moral and spiritual values through the art and literature that reflect them, to have a sense of laying the foundation for future progress, to pursue one's own voyage while guiding or accompanying the students on theirs—these are the gifts, I believe, we are given as teachers.
And this is particularly true of Washington College where the faculty has always been entrusted with the freedom to invent new courses, to choose our own texts, to experiment with new teaching techniques, to be interdisciplinary and, essentially, to be as creative as our own talents might allow. For all of these gifts I say a resounding, "Thank you" to all of you—faculty, staff, administrators, beloved former students—to all of you who contribute to this strange but wonderful project in which the growth of mind and spirit is the principal goal.
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