Letters

CAREER VACILLATIONs Thank you for “In the Company of Animals,” by Bruce Morgan (Fall 2012). I myself started out as a pre-vet at Tufts and changed to “people” medicine after years of contemplation and experience—I was employed as a vet tech/assistant for my student work scholarship at the Cummings School’s Foster Hospital for Small Animals.

Now I am finishing up the last two years of medical school after completing my Ph.D. in a combined-degree program, and I often wonder what it would have been like if I had continued working with animals instead of people. It gives me such pleasure and peace to think that there is always a chance to change course, and to revisit your original love, should you find your current situation unfulfilling.
SARAH GILLETT, A02
BURLINGTON, VERMONT

HOME FOR CREATIVE WRITING As parents of a recent Tufts graduate (Class of 2011), we are lucky enough to be on the distribution list for your impressive alumni magazine. I’ve always admired the liveliness and graphic design of your publication (the bio lab endpapers in the Fall 2012 issue are amazing!), so I was doubly pleased when I noticed the poem “Paper Birch,” by Isa Milman, an old friend of mine from Cambridge in the seventies. She is a terrific person and you do Tufts proud by seeking her out for a contribution.

I hope you will continue to champion poetry and other forms of creative writing, as a prominent forum like yours must be most welcome for any emerging Jumbo author.
EDWARD STRONG, A11P
NEW YORK, NEW YORK

WE BLUSH My compliments on the transformation of Tufts Magazine. As a student many moons ago, I wrote for the Observer and also worked in the Office of Communications. As an adult, I’ve continued to write and edit, so I have a particular interest in the evolution of Tufts publications.

It’s a pleasure to pick up the magazine and feel as if I’m learning interesting details large and small, shiny and not so shiny, about life at Tufts—and in the larger world—rather than merely being massaged into rah-rah-rah land or softened up for another gift to the annual fund. (And people who know me well will tell you I don’t begin too many sentences with “It’s a pleasure . . . ”) Perhaps my favorite part of the magazine is the “Editorial We” column.
SUSAN PAPA, J82
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT