Postured for success

(Program coordinator) Michelle Hedenskoog to me: You look like a model. Me, wondering: Was it the argyle sweater? Michelle: Were you in the military? Me, reflecting: Apparently I walk like I was. I was in JROTC in high school, and somehow the posture prescribed by the military found its way into my professional programming. Apparently it's noticeable. The way I was walking reminded Michelle of her husband, who is in the military. My father also has noticed and made a less-precise comment about it at the dress rehearsal for my brother's wedding a month ago. He told me, "You need to loosen up." What's amazing to me and excites me in a way is how a good habit that I had spent my more rebellious high school years trying to resist has stuck with me. I'm excited because if a good habit I wasn't trying to pick up stuck with me, then the great habits from Chips Quinn training should be impossible to forget. Maybe someday I'll be in a newsroom somewhere and someone will say, "You look like a Chipster ..."

-- David Lipscomb, University of Maryland, Press & Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, N.Y.