Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May...

I gathered rather a lot of rosebuds during my three years at UNE in the early 1960s. Buds: not yet full-blown flowers, but tentative sprouts humming with a hundred different sorts of energy and possibility. It would be easy to look back now, half a century later, and mourn the fact that most of the buds I chose to pick were not of the academic kind, or even particularly intellectual. Or the fact that none fitted me to march, single-minded and resolute, down any specific professional garden path, as, I believe, universities are expected to do these days. But I wouldn't dream of having any such regret. UNE gave me just what I'd grown up believing a university ought to provide: the freedom to wander through a rich and intricate garden maze, touching, sniffing and sipping everything on offer. A broad, truly privileged preparation for life. Whether in fact I chose to grab those opportunities with both hands is another matter entirely.