Monday, October 19, 2009

Thank You For Everything, Professor Kirk

A lot of really great, fun things happened this weekend, but I'm not really in a place at the moment to discuss them with any kind of humor or excitement. I promise I'll post more about those stories a little later, more to document for my own benefit than because any of you are waiting with baited breath to hear about them, when the initial shock of this very, very sad day has abated.

An email was sent out yesterday to all the AUR students with the news that Professor Terry Kirk had passed away suddenly over the weekend. I don't really know any more than that, and it would be inappropriate and disrespectful of me to speculate. All I know is that it was very sudden and shockingly out of the blue. Professor Kirk had been teaching at AUR for over twenty years. Needless to say the news pretty much rocked our little corner of The Eternal City.

I am personally placed in a situation that I've never experienced before by this unquestionable tragedy. Of the death that I have experienced before, I was either mentally and somewhat emotionally prepared for that person, beloved though they were, to pass away, or the event was far enough removed from my immediate existence that I was saddened, but not stopped completely cold by the news. This is different. I saw Professor Kirk walking out of a classroom building on Tuesday night last week. I waved to him and smiled, and he grinned back as he zoomed with characteristic briskness toward Via Carini. On Thursday, Professor Gwynne told us in Art For Art's Sake that he would be leaving after that lesson and that Professor Kirk would be resuming the class. As much as I love Professor Gwynne, I was nevertheless excited by the idea of another class spent constantly on my toes, waiting to jump when a question was fired at me in a style which would have made Socrates proud. I was so eager to experience his teaching again.

There are those people that you rarely come across, and when you do you count yourself very lucky, who provide an incredibly accurate model of what you want to be when you finally reach that elusive point of "grow up". They reinforce and encourage that part of you that whispers "this is what I love. This is why I love it." They give you an outlet to express those things you already know while at the same time constantly giving you new things to learn. You can look at them and see why you chose the profession you chose, because they are an example of a person who followed their passion and triumphed. They set the example of continuing education not because it will get you more money, but because they genuinely find joy in their curiosity and in discovering new things for the sake of discovering them.

I only knew Professor Kirk for a little less than two months, but in that time he made such an impact on me that, though I came to Rome thinking that Art History could just be a neat thing to know a lot about but not necessarily an ideal career path, I now realize that I can't ignore something that makes me thrilled to go to class each day. The joy in his face when he spoke about the aesthetic theories of Kant and Winkelmann makes me realize that, even though what you're passionate about may be confusing to some people, if it makes you excited enough to make your life's work revolve around it, that's what you should be doing.

Again, I didn't know the man very long, but given the outpouring of devastation and grief that AUR is currently weathering, his indelible impact on me was not a unique event. If he could help me solidify my academic passion into a career goal in just two months of twice-a-week classes, I can't even imagine the impact he's had on the students and teachers he's been working with for over twenty years. There are some people who change people just by being themselves.

Here's my point: if there's someone out there who made a profound impact on you, whether it be academically, politically, spiritually, whatever... tell them. Tell them how much you appreciate the role they played in your life, and how their influence has stayed with you. Honestly, on Friday I would have thought that sentiment a little melodramatic and sappy, but the world can change just that quickly, and you never know when you might have already run out of chances to thank them for the person you are.

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