Letter to the Editor: Thanks for job well done, Mr. Qudus

Editor:

Representing all the students that had class with this brilliant professor, I want to say that it is also with great sadness that we say goodbye to you, Mr. Qudus.

I can say you are one of the best professors I have ever had in my 29-year life. Also, I can say you are one of the best men I have ever known.

You are a marvelous teacher not only because you know so well the world we live in today, but also because you care so much about the world we will be leaving for the next generations.

Before you leave for your deserved journey in Maine, I just wanted to share with the readers the happiness of having being your student, and share with you the many changes you have helped me to accomplish/achieve in life.

After an entire life trying to create courage to stop eating meat and trying to be healthier, I finally understood the real reason why we should not accept the modern life-style we are all submitted to nowadays.

More than religion, ideology, or even for fitness purposes, we all must stop and analyze how we eat and how we act toward our world for the single purpose of avoiding damage to ourselves.

Water, food, and resources in general have always been scarce, but the way we are living is increasing their scarceness and contaminating, compromising and destroying them.

I know all these words sound so obvious and even old-fashioned, but unfortunately, the words are getting old, but the attitudes aren't changing.

Everything you taught me in our short summer semester was enough to make me see the world differently and start changing, and that is how you know you found a great professor.

I can no longer close my eyes to our environmental issues. I became a vegetarian. When I am showering, I shut the water if I am not using it. I am trying to eat organics only, use less plastic, etc.

Again, all these things sound old or hippie-stylish things, but in fact they are pretty hard to be done. I myself spent 29 years trying, trying, and trying. And only now, after taking your geology class, I was able to start, little by little, putting all this in practice.

I had the pleasure of being your student only recently, in the second summer session, and you have helped me to change my life in so many aspects in such a short time.

I can only imagine how many people have been enlightened by your knowledge and inspiration during your entire academic path.

Thank you so much, Mr. Qudus, for your dedication in every class, inspiration to our lives, for the huge knowledge you passed to us in geology, and, mainly, for teaching us how to love our "Mother Earth."

Rebeca Dominguez

International Student from Brazil