20 years is nothing, but 26…
By Jose A. Cruz Lemus (University Professor).
26 years is precisely the part of my life that I have been linked to @esiuclm. When I landed here we were in another century and even in another building (the ITA-Informática group). To tell the truth, not even the ESI was such, but the EUI (University School of Informatics), where you could study Technical Engineering in Computer Systems and Management. I took the second. Actually, I liked mathematics from a very young age, when even my father bragged that I knew how to say the license plate numbers of cars when I was only a couple of years old. But some bad experience in my last years of high school and, above all, having my brother Cristóbal studying at the School, inclined me to opt for this option.
At that first moment, my ignorance of what the University was, its dynamics and its calendars was so enormous that when I had the pleasure of appearing in class for the first time, my classmates had already been there for several days. I had missed the first classes of Introduction to Programming, Computer Technology (see attached file), Calculus, Physics and Business Accounting, which were the subjects I had to take in that first semester of my new university life.
Fortunately, I was able to join the rhythm of the group thanks to the help of one of the main assets that that EUI had and that the current ESI retains: the human stature of its students. It is rare to find a graduate of this School who today, over time, does not count among his closest circle several colleagues from those days of study and laboratory practices.
I finished the ITIG and, later, I was part of one of the first promotions that completed the newly released Computer Engineering (“the superior” as it has been known colloquially). Right after I finished, I began my career as an associate professor, then assistant, doctor's assistant, contracted doctor and university professor and there we continued, fattening up the curriculum to try to get an accreditation as a professor in the future. In all that time, and to correct my initial mistake, I have had the opportunity to learn in depth how a center works and its many administrative and teaching management processes. I have even been lucky enough to collaborate in updating some of them. And all this that I tell within the same University and, above all, of the same School.
The ESI, for me and always, is above all its people. There is a community of people who live together in an environment in which while some forge their professional future, at the same time and in parallel, others enjoy our profession, because there are many of us who are current teachers in this center that we form here, in these classrooms. Some of my professors from yesteryear became classmates in their day, and fortunately, some of my former students today are young university professors, with a bright and promising future ahead of them.
In all this time and as is natural, the anecdotes and moments that are part of our history pile up and, from time to time, a meeting allows you to relive. These shared stories almost always serve us to laugh together remembering the good times and, because it is also necessary, to remember and celebrate those who are already with us because they left us in their day. Among the latter I would like to explicitly name Francisco, Eugenio, Camelia and Concha, as well as my own brother, whom I continue to miss every day and whose photo I look for whenever I can on the borders hanging in different areas of the School.
Most of the funniest anecdotes are part of Santa Tecla celebrations. Dear students: yes, against all odds, your teachers have also been young and, of course, they knew how to have fun… and not a little! I remember the unrepeatable celebrations in the ITA parking lot, a concert that was held in the courtyard of the current ESI with enormous success in attendance, critics and the public (although the rest of the nearby educational centers may have a different opinion in this regard) , a Guinness record achieved with a huge pan full of crumbs and, of course, the first monologue contest that was held just 20 years ago and the name of whose winner I will omit out of modesty and not to remind @agusduran that, despite our friendship, to this day he still hasn't forgiven me for having beaten him in his specialty, even though the field factor was important and I played en casa.
After these first 26 years, I can only hope that within another 26 we can continue coming to the ESI -obviously as a courtesy visit- to, in all likelihood, confirm that this center will continue in future days to be a benchmark in teaching, research and university management, the three great axes to which all of us who are part of this community try to contribute with our day to day. And it will be so thanks to its people: students, administration and services staff, teachers and researchers. The ESI.
Thank you for all this time and let's continue, together, enjoying what is to come.
— Jose Antonio Cruz Lemus @jjoselemuss
