The Dandelion

After the summer of 1980 I was very anxious to get back to school and I was really anxious to see Lisa again. She was now 17 and a senior in high school. It was now time for me to pick a major and I loved my materials science class so much that I decided to pursue a career in Metallurgical Engineering. I know the title says Metallurgy but it is really focused on materials science in general and today it would be called Materials Engineering. My career has always been mostly focused on semi-conducting materials. As I progressed towards my degree my classes became more interesting and my grades gradually improved. My biggest joy was getting my calculus classes behind me. I hated every minute of those and I'm still so weak in calculus that I think I'm going to retake them all. The advancement of computers has made it so that I've never actually had to use calculus in my career. Anytime I've had a calculus problem to solve I've been able to do it on computers. I'm actually doing that all the time so I'm quite grateful for computers.

My relationship with Lisa also progressed very quickly at this point. We had a lot of opposition from the family however. Now that I'm in the position of the parent I can only imagine how upset I would be if there was a twenty two year old college student dating my seventeen year old high school daughter. I'd probably kill them. Looking back I'm quite impressed with how restrained my family (and Lisa's) was but their concern and disapproval was very obvious to us and we felt the pressure. I even wrote a poem about the opposition we were facing. I'm not much of a poet and personally I hate poems but you know what it is like to be young and in love. After much consideration and significant trepidation I've decided to share my poem with you. I was digging through some old boxes in the garage the other day and ran across it. It is very corny so please be gentle with me.

The Dandelion

I wish to give to you a flower,
to show my love for you;
but come the time to chose which one,
my ideas were very few.

But at last my pains were gone,
the perfect flower I'd found;
to represent my love for you,
it's blossoms small and round.

Yes, I'd chosen a dandelion,
how silly you may say;
but let me take the next few lines,
to show why I chose this way.

The dandelion and my love for you,
are very much the same;
through thick and thin and rain and drought,
they both will still remain.

Some times it seems that all the world,
fights against our love;
how very much like the dandelion,
who is plucked by a dirty glove.

But even as the harshest winter,
begins to melt away;
You're sure to find a dandelion,
because he's here to stay.

You can dig and cuss and swear and fight,
pour poison on his leaf;
but every year the first flower you'll see,
is the dandelion, with strong roots beneath.

So let the world say what they will,
let them dig at me;
pour poison down upon our leaves,
my love won't die, they'll see.

The hardest winter can come and go,
the driest drought prevail;
as long as you, my cause is there,
my love for you won't fail.

So this is why I give to you,
a dandelion bright and gay;
because my love just like this flower,
is here, and here to stay.

by Fred Leavitt