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Today's Featured Biography

 
Leslie June

Where has my trail led since that slushy winter day in January 1968? What would I share about my life’s journey with my class mates of yore? Well…Here goes…

…It all began less than a week after graduation when I joined a Detroit bank as a summer student worker. Granted, it was not summer yet, but we January kids never did anything by the normies’ calendar. September found me at Michigan State where I majored in partying and protesting the Viet Nam war while managing a degree in Math Education – not quite the apex of a mathematician’s dream, but one that would serve to blend a happy professional and home life in Fort Liquordale, FL quite nicely. And, it did until…

…Kaboom!!! My world fell apart in July 1976 – my husband of three years was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Two rock strewn years later (BTW- I navigate rocky terrain just fine, thank you!), just five weeks before his passing, my Dad (whom many of you knew and loved) was struck down – a random victim of gang violence in Detroit.

The next three years saw me reeling, despite my prideful outer being. “Leaving the past behind”, I returned to East Lansing in 1979 in a futile attempt to “start over” screwing up at every turn. Two years that were more like self destructing than partying, several piles of physical, mental, and emotional garbage (i.e., wrecked cars, used up friends, lost jobs, 2 DUIs inside of 6 weeks, etc.), and excruciating internal pain later, I gave up. My desperate attempt to build a meaningful life while retaining my free spirit party girl persona came to a fork in the path – I could not have both. I had to choose one.

Desperate to salvage my life, I gave up partying, fully resigned to some boring monk-like existence void of color and pleasure. On August 28, 1981 I embarked a new journey of sobriety that has been anything but boring! The first year, I was like a dog crawling out of a mud hole, desperate to stay alive. As much as I now want never to return to those “good ‘ol partying days”, I also hope I never repeat that first year out of the mud hole again.

Once out, with the help o’ me friends (new friends!), I began a rebuilding era – back to graduate school at MSU teaching Math part time while earning my MS in Computer Science; A new career in computer technology consulting with a prominent employer that took me to the far corners of the earth – Asia, Europe, and South America; A brief marriage to a cowboy veterinarian that took me atop mountain peaks and along river streams throughout Montana and New Mexico; a bittersweet return to Michigan where I renewed friendship and family relations while living in my very own log home outside East Lansing with my girls and boys (dogs & cats) while supporting Spartan athletics.

This wonderful way of living has not meant purely swell circumstances. It means I have a wonderful way of meeting life on life’s terms and making adjustments. After the Y2K tech bubble burst, I experienced many rounds of layoffs. Four consulting / teaching jobs later and a shift in outlook placing personal well being ahead of appearances, I now live in Indian Rocks Beach, FL where I work from home for an IT Asset Management consulting firm (TekMethods) and share life’s joys with my new found Squeeze (Dean) – a genuine hunk of a Florida Cracker who was “Born Yankee, Rebel by the Grace of God!”.

We make time to enjoy the truly beautiful Florida beaches, forests, and springs. When we get the urge to “Hit the Road Again”, we head to Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula (island!) with our dogs Halley and Beth. All in all, it’s a wonderful life!

While I may have turned a deaf ear to your calls to befriend me in high school, know that it was not you whom I ignored but alcohol whose call I was compelled to heed. Now that I am free from the bondage of booze, I look forward to visiting with y’all at the Reunion and hearing about your escapades of the last 40 years!

Bring on the Iced Tea!

Leslie June
Class of ’68 (January)

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