Dear Fondy, Hi

As sent to the Fond du Lac Reporter, that good-ole hometown paper of particular note. A few words on home, school, Hungary and an upcoming referendum. I figure it won't do much more to make a few people proud of the hometown boy turned good rather than change any minds politically, but it's worth the fight.

It’s hard to know how to feel about home when you’re 25.

Fond du Lac and I are a bit like the magnets I remember in Mr. Hammer’s science classroom. Our poles push away and pull back, both at the same time. I met my best friend in that classroom, on the first day of eighth grade. He’ll be getting married this summer. That’s one of the things pulling me back this time around.

After graduating high school, I waved goodbye to Fond du Lac. The first steps weren’t very far, but it wasn’t until I left home that I flourished. I succeeded at Wisconsin’s fine universities because I was so well-prepared by the Fond du Lac schools. Teachers like Mr. Cooper should be proud of their work.

As I grew, so did the distance from home. Colorado’s a long drive from here. Miss Abel was both my second-grade teacher and my behind-the-wheel instructor. I drove safely all the way out West because of her. North Carolina, too. I lived and worked in both places for a long time. But I always come back. Sometimes for relaxation, sometimes because of a lack of better options.

Once, I was even invited back. For a semester, I was back in school, this time as a teacher. I was so proud to patrol the wide halls of our beautiful new high school next to my old teachers like Mrs. Porter. Inside the comfortable and inviting classroom, a hundred of this city’s finest young minds were mine to mold, to inspire, to guide through the process of learning.

At the end of the year the students evaluated me with a grade. The average? B+. I never much liked Bs as a student, but if those kids, the future of Fond du Lac, are just a bit better off as a person as they claimed, I’ll take any grade.

And now I find myself further away than ever, welcoming spring in Heves, a little Hungarian town of 10,000 people. I’m here mostly because there’s a program coordinator sitting in an office in Oregon who was born in Fond du Lac. We laughed about our connection, then she sent me off to Hungary.

I hardly speak a lick of Hungarian, but every week I teach English and German to more than 250 high school students. I share with them the world beyond their little community. I am an ambassador of languages and cultures.

Twelve-hundred students crowd the big, three-story building. The town takes great pride in the school, but there are problems. It leaks. I have classrooms without enough chairs. And last week, the students couldn’t go outside because roof tiles were being blown off by the wind.

There are even bigger problems outside of the school. The region has very few good jobs, but most of the students will never leave. Only the talented and lucky might get a chance to move to Budapest.

The problems stem from a lack of wealth in this economically-depressed part of Hungary. They don’t come from a lack of commitment. That would be a much sadder story.

The people are friendly here, I like meeting anyone who speaks even a little English or German. They always ask where home is. I smile. I can’t say I’m from "up on the Ledge, out towards St. Peter." Even the word Wisconsin means just about nothing. Here in Eastern Europe, "home" is relegated to the giant swath of land "between Chicago and Canada."

Soon, I’ll be coming back to that home. I’ve decided that I rather like Fond du Lac as a magnet, pushing me off to new adventures, but always welcoming me back. I think that contentment is a sign that I’ve grown up.

My parents raised me well, but they couldn’t have done it alone. A score of amazing teachers pushed me to become a better person. But those educators needed support, too. And it was you who helped them. The community of Fond du Lac and the state of Wisconsin should be proud to have some of the finest schools anywhere.

Sitting in Hungary, I can’t testify to the merits of the upcoming referendum. But I can encourage you to get information. And I can offer a little tribute to the good things that happen in the schools that dot our community.

Give the future, those kids in those desks, even better opportunities than the ones that were given to you. To us. Continue to support education, a commitment to progress that makes the world a better place.

After all, the magnets in that science classroom aren’t free of charge.