Following a six-year stint in the Marine and Offshore Oil Industries, surveying and adjusting marine casualty claims, I changed tack . . . to dredge harbors in Texas school rooms: for two-year college students, high school students and junior-high students; for students in dual-credit and in pre-AP; for students at risk, for students enrolled in TDCJ's finest institutions of higher education and for students from across the Brazos Valley region, from across Texas and beyond; and for second-language English students having migrated here from Mexico, Canada, the West Indies, Central and South America; from Western Europe, Central Europe and Eastern Europe; from North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa; and from East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Southwest Asia.Now 32 years into this gig, twilight-shading, it's as though I've engaged more of the world without leaving the state than I saw during that preceding period when I actually took some overseas trips.