Final Thoughts

The past two years have provided me with a wonderful opportunity to teach and conduct research in Finland under the support of Fulbright Finland, the Saastamoinen Foundation, the University of Finland-Kuopio School of Pharmacy and Toxicology Program, and North Carolina State University. I’ve been very fortunate to have been given these opportunities. I am indebted to my students both here in the US as well as in Finland. I am grateful to all of my Finnish colleagues for sharing their love of their country with me. Your support and friendship over these past two years has been so important to me and my family – kittos.

I appreciate that my sons arranged their vacations so that we could spend time together. Special thanks are also due to my wife Melanie – she had a lot of extra work to contend with during my absences. Taking care of Jake our Golden Retriever alone can be close to a full time job. Her love and support allowed me to pursue this dream.

I’d also like to thank you the readers of this blog for your willingness to share my experiences. I hope you’ve learned a few things along the way – I know I did in preparing these posts. I hope it also encourages some of you to pursue your own Fulbright opportunity. It’s an amazing program. The Fulbright program provided me and others with the opportunity to share these experiences with my family as well.

A question I have been asked is when will I be returning to Finland? I wish I knew the answer to that query. I remain hopeful that I will be returning at some time in the future. I also believe that a part of me may not have left entirely. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the following quote from the namesake of the Fulbright program: