Alumni Weekend Roud-Up

So I went back for Alumni weekend. It was pretty intense and I have a lot of general thoughts about it. I know some famous author said, "You can't go home again," well that is true of college as well. You can go back and you can hang out, do the same things you did while you were there, and even some of the people you were there with, but the truth is it will not be the same. As you desperately try to pretend you are still a college sophmore, people can see the obvious disgust on your face with dirty bathrooms and the crappy beer.

Part of it is that you have been replaced. It may be hard to accept, but after you left some kid who was pretty much exactly like you only younger came in and basically took your spot and life went on at that school. Much like an assembly line where the finished product was finally pumped out, so too with college some other lacoste shirt wearing punk from high school, just like you at the beginning is starting over in the exact same place.

Another part of it is that many colleges, like mine, are located in tiny little towns where basically nothing of any cultural importance is occuring on a daily or even yearly basis. The only thing that made college interesting in the first place was experiencing things for the first time academically as well as socially, not the geographic setting. It may be hard to remember, but this probably even occurred to you when you were near the end of your time there; however, nostalgia sets in for some of us and we forget that a bit. Perhaps another factor is that hopefully we gained some great friendships from our time in college and we are still holding on to them, and sometimes for some reason we confuse those relationships with an arbitrary location and a time that has passed. Another part of it is that you probably reached maximum saturation with this tiny place while you were actually forced to live there for college, not unlike the little kid who loves corndogs, so he eats so many he finally vomits and then can never have another corndog.

This weekend I saw an old friend I had not seen since a year out of college and that was great. We hung out, had some laughs, and most certainly tried to relive our college experience. I also saw a girl I dated in college who I had not seen since we broke up, which was interesting. I realized that I had forgetten that she was a really great girl who undoubtedly I had underappreciated, but it was good just to see her and try to make the case I had grown up a little.

I am the last person to claim that I am mature, but certainly I have changed. This weekend brought back a swirl of emotions that still has me pondering things 2 days after I drove as far away as I possibly could from the place. It was good to see you F&M and to see that although I have changed, you have not.

Comments

[Conor]

Wise words Zen master. I too visited my old school this past weekend and I'm convinced that the quote from Mr. Smith in "The Matrix" sums it up quite well..."Its the smell."

[Bill]

I like the corndog analogy.

[Adam]

It's kind of funny that you were trying to make the case to Maureen that you had grown up (undoubtedly true) while the weekend was largely spent regressing.