In a series that began on 31May2026 as MY LIFE:  Part 1 , I've been serializing my life from youth to retirement.  MY LIFE: Part 3i--Incredible Journeys during Reti... MY LIFE: Part 3h--Incredible Journeys during Reti... MY LIFE: PART 3g Pearl's Ashes--Machu Picchu MY LIFE: PART 3G Pearl's Ashes--Mount Kilimanjaro MY LIFE: PART 3G Pearl's Ashes--The Taj Mahal MY LIFE: Part 3F: Gratitude....Not Grief MY LIFE: Part 3e Pearl's Ashes MY LIFE: Part 3d MY LIFE: Part 3c MY LIFE: Part 3b MY LIFE: Part 3a MY LIFE: 2b MY LIFE: Part 2a MY LIFE: Part 1b MY LIFE: Part 1 Fifteen episodes later, I was into some of those incredible journeys I had in my retirement.  These will continue for a few more chapters, but today, I will crystalize the essence of my life into a few highlights.  So I titled it Part Alpha. On 30September2026, my post was titled:    MAGIC CAN HAPPEN IF YOU TRY This article focused on a magical period from high school into Stanford.  So if you want ...

On Sunday, I indicated that my life had three 27-year periods after the age of 5, and provided details of the first trio, but only got through high school.  Today, I will complete this initial educational cycle with Stanford University, an important learning experience in the Hawaiian sugar industry, then graduate school. So in 1958 I left Hawaii for the first time. My brother by then was working at the Naval Civil Engineering Center in Port Hueneme, California.  I stayed with his family that summer, for he secured for me a summer job at this center. Stanford was a challenge, for I was below average, again, in all facets of life, sociologically, economically and intellectually. There were no Black students, Hispanics were not yet even identified and I was the only student of Japanese ethnicity. Actually, there was one Black in 1891, the year the school opened, Ernest Houston Johnson.  He graduated in 1895 in economics, but sadly died of tuberculosis in 1898 at the age of ...