A 60-mile Maintenance Check

Today my oldometer clicks over to 60. My owner’s manual suggests some annual maintenance in the form of reflection on the road I’ve traveled. My hope, in making this public, is to create a closer connection with you through our common humanity, and to illuminate the darkness that seems to be closing in on us, through an appreciation of the miracle of life. Consider all the lives touched and changed by your journey through life. 

If the quality of one’s life can be measured by the quantity and quality of one’s friends, then I am very, very fortunate. I feel much love and gratitude for the wonderful birthday wishes that continue to flow in through Facebook, text messages, email, and even a couple cards in the mail (thanks Mom!). Hearing from all of you provides a great opportunity to reflect on all the stages of my life where we connected... 

First there are my oldest and dearest family and friends from the NW side of Chicago - the Baldaufs, Romanowskis, Studzinskis, Bortkos, Mays, and others, now dispersed across the country, who helped raise and nurture me - and toughen me up, back in the days when extended family members were as close as immediate family members and neighbors were your closest friends.

Then there are my friends from Northbrook and Glenbrook North Highschool (home of Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller) with whom I developed as a musician and a human being, exploring a wide variety of opportunities and lifestyles - like Ferris, not always making the best choices. My job at The Village School of Folk Music repairing instruments and teaching banjo and guitar opened the door to my musical future and introduced me to many of my musician friends. It’s great to hear from my friends who survived those awkward years with me!

Then it’s off to the hills and hollers of Rowan County, Ky and Morehead State University where I established some of my deepest friendships and learned some of my most poignant life lessons making music with friends in dorms, college apartments, doublewides, and log cabins. It’s so great to hear from my Ky friends who welcomed this banjo-picking city boy and made me an honorary hillbilly - a designation I wear with pride to this day.

Then to Southern Wisconsin and the amazing years spent living, traveling, and performing with the Piper Road Spring Band, and working part-time at Pesche’s Greenhouse. Traveling with a band, you create relationships that are as close as family. I made more dear friends with Piper Road than most people make in a lifetime. In addition to the wonderful friends I made in Wisconsin, there are my very special friends in the lower FL Keys.  

Then it’s to Tallahassee, and friends I made through my five years of teaching music at Stubbs Music Center, and playing music with Cypress Creek - a band that performed around Tallahassee for over 25 years. Over those years, we played an unbelievable amount of bars and parties each with its own amazing story and cast of characters. Portions of Cypress Creek live on in my current band, The Kenny Hill Band and I am grateful to continue making friends and memories through music. 

Along the way I returned to school at FSU to study Computer Science, and have remained there for 26 years - first as a grad student, then on the faculty in Computer Science, then as the Director of the Program in Interdisciplinary Computing, and finally in my current role as Director of the Innovation Hub. There are so many people who assisted me on this path, and no vocabulary could possibly do justice to voicing my appreciation. Ultimately, this has led to me living out my purpose on this planet teaching and nurturing empathy and creativity for the purpose of building a better world. It’s extra special to hear from my mentors, colleagues, friends, and students from FSU today wishing me a happy birthday.

Finally, I must recognize those who I’ve worked with in service to the community as a board member of Moonshot Florida, The Sharing Tree, Cornerstone Learning Community, and in a wide variety of projects with city and county leadership and organizations. I am so grateful to the wonderful community of Tallahassee, and the hard-working, good people who are making a difference and that I am proud to call friends.

So, even though it has been a particularly challenging year for me with all the insanity of 2020 compounded by an ongoing, painful divorce, I find myself feeling immense gratitude for the life granted me, the amazing experiences I have enjoyed, and all of you, my friends. Quite frankly, I’m amazed I survived past 30. All the rest has been icing on the cake.