Nicholas Mackechnie Hawkin – 50th Reunion Essay

Nicholas Mackechnie Hawkin

helenick@sky.com

Spouse(s): Helen Rouse (1999)

Career: Translator World Council of Churches, English Language Trainer Canada, Spain, UK, Lecturer Spain, UK

Avocations: Photography, public speaking, writing, classic films, rock and roll

College: Trumbull

Yale changed me completely. My eyes were opened in New Haven between 1966 and 1969—and my mind too, if I’m honest. Yale taught me to sit up, look around and pay attention. I learned about Latin American fiction, the women of various women’s colleges and those funny-looking cigarettes. I made good friends. I also picked up on the need for organization and how to meet deadlines—in short, how to apply effort to the subject at hand. I was lucky enough to be tapped for a senior society. Here, regularity of attendance was required, as was reasoned input. Good discussions and lasting friendships were the result.

I’ve been to so many different places since graduation, so many jobs, so many residences, so many blissful kisses and broken hearts, that I sometimes wonder if all this really happened to me. How many lives have I lived? It can be unsettling.

I didn’t think much about life when I was at Yale. I had a great time, and if my pleasures were similar to those of Dr. Jekyll, which is to say undignified, I can honestly say that I never ventured into Mr. Hyde’s much darker territory.

I think Yale gave me the confidence to go out into the world. I knew I was as yet unformed, but those years at Trumbull taught me about fellowship and sharpened my senses. They made me curious about a world that I had previously taken very much for granted. I drove my father crazy, but in studiously negating his wishes, I omitted to look to my own career path. What did I want to do? I hadn’t a clue, but I was blithely optimistic. Luckily (isn’t good luck almost more important than anything else?) I found my niche in Canada when I became a language teacher. I taught English for decades in Canada, Spain and England. Now I’m a lecturer in popular culture and art guide at the museum here in Bournemouth. I’ve had to learn about Victorian art, something I knew nothing about pre-2011. I’m happily married to Helen, who is a school director of studies. I can honestly say that life is good.

I’ve kept up with some of my Yale chums, although with me on this side of the pond and them over there, we don’t see each other as often as I would like.

Sum total? I’ll never forget my time in America.

My movements since graduation: Geneva; Stony Creek, Conn; Montreal; Nerja; London; Nerja; Granada; Nerja; Bournemouth.

Good health and serenity to all.