I almost failed my finals. It would have been tough on the loose without a degree.

I almost failed my engineering finals because I didn’t toe the Opus-Dei line in an essay.

Fuck you, Timoney! You gave me a grade so bad for my defiant essay that, under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have passed my finals.

Had there been an Alt-Right then, you would have been one of them. You denied the toxicity of lead; you even denied the toxicity of smoking. You sought to force your students to regurgitate your religious superstitions under threat of failing the mech eng degree course.

And thank you Vinnie McCabe for being a reasonable and humane Dean of Engineering, for giving me a dispensation for this rule that a delusional Opus-Dei professor sought to exploit.

I am forever in your debt. Your lenience, your understanding, your kindness and sense of fairness and justice stay with me to this day.

Thanks for letting me pass. It meant so much to me to get my degree after 5 years of academic struggle.