  This invited memoir looks back on my scientific career that straddles the
solar and stellar branches of astrophysics, with sprinklings of historical
context and personal opinion. Except for a description of my life up to my
Ph.D. phase, the structure is thematic rather than purely chronological,
focusing on those topics that I worked on throughout substantial parts of my
life: stars like the Sun and the Sun-as-a-star, surface field evolution,
coronal structure and dynamics, heliophysics education, and space weather. Luck
and a broadly inquisitive frame of mind shaped a fortunate life on two
continents, taking me from one amazing mentor, colleague, and friend to
another, working in stimulating settings to interpret data from
state-of-the-art space observatories.
