And so it begins

I am sitting in the British Airways lounge waiting my flight to Heathrow and then on to Delhi. It has been an emotional day to say the least. In reality, the tears really started to flow on Sunday afternoon. I have found myself wondering over the past 48 hours, "how many tears can be shed before the body gives up and says, 'That's it. I don't have anymore to give'".

Before I get too far into this post, I need to give some background on how we got here and what we'll be doing.

A year ago, in the late winter/early spring of 2012, I was actively working to create possible joint venture activities and partnerships between Charter College and various Indian universities. The process that had begun with great enthusiasm and promise got mired in politics, bad timing, and conflicting agendas. In July, those projects and my role with Charter College were ended. It was a difficult time; as I said there had been great hope and anticipation for our joint venture relationships. I had invested a lot of myself emotionally and intellectually in making them happen. Now there was nothing.

Well nothing is not quite right. A seed had been planted and a potential had been opened through preparation. 

The seed: in one of the last conversations Mike Dawson and I had at the end of a month-long business development trips to India, Mike asked if Rae and I would be willing to move to India for a while to get the projects off the ground. This raised an idea in my mind I had never considered. Despite over a dozen trips to India, and a general interest in the idea of living and working for some time outside the United States, Rae and I had never even discussed the possibility of living there. When I got home, I mentioned Mike's comment to her and the seed was planted.

Preparation leads to opportunity: in trying to make our joint venture activities successful. I developed a certain degree of expertise in existing efforts between US and Indian institutions. I had tried for months to leverage that knowledge into a success. Despite best efforts, by mid-summer of 2012 Charter decided they were not going to pursue activities in India. With that decision I was left without a job. I followed a dual path of looking for interesting, challenging work that would build on my skills and experience and trying to leverage my contacts in India to create an opportunity with another US college or university. In December my good friend Larry Capps told me about an opportunity with Stratford University in Virginia.

I knew Stratford from my research about the efforts of US colleges and universities in India. In fact, they were the model I used to explain to the Charter Leadership what I thought we could do in India. It turns out, they decided that despite all of their efforts, there needed to be someone on site who knew how to grow and run a US campus. My initial contact through the recruiter was answered in about a minute, which led to a series of interviews with both internal and external recruiters. Ultimately I met with most of the leadership of Stratford and the CEO of the Indian joint venture partner MAII. These interviews took place in January. In February Rae and I visited India for me to meet with the folks here and for Rae to determine if she thought she could live here. By mid-March we had received a written offer and negotiated a mutually agreeable contract. Now here we are. I am sitting in our flat in New Delhi and Rae is half-way around the world in West Linn, Oregon.

My leaving was very hard on everyone. This move has not started without strong spiritual confirmation that this is what we should be doing. There has been fasting, prayers, and blessings received. Rae and I both believe this is what we are supposed to be doing. Still, when it came to actually saying goodbye, there many tears shed. We love our family, our friends, and our life in Oregon. Separating from all of that is very difficult. We hope that through this blog we can help make those relationships even stronger. Perhaps we will make India so appealing a portion of those who have said they will come visit us, will actually do so!

Namaste.