Last Friday, in the first edition of our new feature, 20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK, we highlighted a 2005 Crossley student, Graham Kinsman, who did his co-op stint with a Welland law firm. Where, we wondered, was Graham Kinsman now, two decades later?
Readers had ideas, and one internet find in particular—a LinkedIn profile—seemed the most promising. But before the detective work truly got under way, in just over 24 hours the case was suddenly solved by none other than...Graham Kinsman's wife, Meg!
"He's next to me while I write this," she wrote in an email. "Our kids are so confused why their parents are laughing over dinner."
And so we bring you Chapter 2, the follow-up, the sequel—the 20-year update—written by the man himself:
Twenty years on, I'm calling penalties and mixing chemicals
By Graham Kinsman
Imagine my shock, sitting down on Saturday evening, when my wife let out a gasp of surprise and jumped up from her seat. Months ago, she set a Google alert for my name to catch an article that I had been interviewed for. The hit she got was far from anything we could have expected.
She opened the article and passed it over to me. There I saw a bright-eyed, baby-faced E.L. Crossley high school law co-op student staring me down as though through a time capsule. My daughter said she didn’t recognize me in the picture. Neither did I.
(I feel the need to issue a correction, as the call for information indicated that I was pushing 40. I’m 37. [Editor’s note: A mere shove and you're there!])
Reading my resolute take on my co-op experience was enlightening. I never did pursue a career in law. Far from it — I went into hard science. I also no longer live in the Niagara Region. Far from it — I live in Northern Ontario.
After leaving home for post-secondary education in Belleville, I ended up in Brockville, Ontario for almost a decade, where I met my favourite person in the world, my wife, Meg. Then to Ottawa. Then almost back home when my family and I moved to Hamilton during the peak of COVID. Our daughter was born in Hamilton in 2021 and we, as many others were doing, were desperately trying to find our forever home in a difficult time and location.
Our eyes and hearts (and bank accounts) drew us north. Growing up in Welland/Fonthill, I was afforded freedom of space. Summers were spent in my parents' rural backyard, swimming and exploring with my sister. Winters were spent in the warmth of home and the snow forts my dad would build us. My wife had a similar rural upbringing. We determined that what was most important to us was providing that same space for our (now) two children.
Reading my 2005 article from the snow-covered town of New Liskeard, it provided me with some reflection. Reflection on how Pelham institutions and people helped shape me into who I am today.
After high school, a few friends and I spent two seasons coaching peewee hockey for the Pelham Minor Hockey Association. This provided a new passion for a sport I spent so much time playing as a kid. I don’t currently coach, but I am an official for the Northern Ontario Hockey Association. The time I spent with PMHA gave me some perspective on the relationship between coaches, players, parents and officials. It offered me some insight on what coaches and parents are thinking when they are berating me for doing my job so their impressionable children can enjoy a hobby. A lesson for all individuals involved in minor hockey — it’s a game, meant to be fun. Don’t ruin it for the kids.
Throughout high school, and afterwards, I spent evenings, weekends, and summers working in the nursery at Rice Road Greenhouses. Quite possibly the best, most fun job I have had. I formed an extremely meaningful friendship with my supervisor, dawn crysler, who impacted my life in a significant way. Dawn was a playwright, an actress, worked on set design, played music, and at the time she ran the nursery. With her influence and infectious love for all things, I developed a love for plants and nature that holds strong today. She taught me the value of hard work and respect, but also how to feed and care for peacocks, iguanas, and all the native animals found in the Pelham area.
My love for nature began at home in my family’s vegetable garden and the backyard willows where my mom’s green thumb rubbed off on me, but up north here it blossomed into a passion. At home now, our vegetable garden and yard landscaping grows every year, including a tree that we planted in honour of dawn and her impact on us.
To get back to my co-op placement and the point of this follow-up – despite not pursuing a career in law, it helped to inform me that law wasn’t for me. For that, the placement was invaluable, and I would urge any high-schooler to engage in any opportunities that help to inform them of their interests for the future.
I cannot speak to the experience of current students, but I do know when I was in high school I felt rushed to determine who I was and what I was going to do for the rest of my life at such a young age. It took me some time to define my long-term interests, and to determine who I wanted to be.
My career is in analytical laboratory management. Far from being a lawyer. Though I have been reminded that a part of my job and my officiating role is ensuring that our work, and hockey, follow specific standards and rules. In a way, maybe I didn’t stray too far from the rule of law.
Our family recently made a trip to visit my parents, who still reside in Welland. We don’t make a lot of trips that way lately. It’s a long drive for a toddler and a newborn. Maybe when Doug Ford builds his subterranean bullet-train, we’ll be able to make it down more often. (Though I doubt it would be serviced to Northern Ontario.) Driving through Fonthill was particularly eye opening — where once were fields are now parking lots. Where once were trees are now condos. The roads are busier, and life seems to match that. When I was younger I had always assumed I would end up back in the Niagara Region, buying my childhood home (which, incidentally, is my dad’s childhood home, and certainly well beyond our level of affordability), but coming back confirmed to me that we are in the right place for us. In the open air, in nature, participating in a small community. Even if I didn’t end up on the same career path as I had initially thought, I have ended up in the life that I wanted.
Feel free to reach out again when I’m pushing 60. Who knows, maybe I’ll be a lawyer by then.
