GO WES!

I just got back from my 15th year college reunion. I am a proud alumnus of Wesleyan University. As usual, it was great! I got to see friends I haven't seen since I was at the 10th year event and I got to party like I'd won the lottery! I stayed up all night (without meaning to), slept past my checkout time, and spent the next 48 hours feeling pretty hung-over. All in all, a success by my account!

Some might say that college reunions are a waste of time; the only reason you might want to go to such an event is to try to escape the reality that you've gotten old and unnecessarily responsible. Others might even say that it's just an exercise in vanity where you try to make yourself seem thin, successful, wealthy, etc. Be that as it may, I'll take any excuse to get to go back to my alma mater. For me, it's an exercise in reconnection to a place that is singularly formative in my life. I owe much of what I am today to that ivy-covered 163 acre campus. I loved, hated, cried, rejoiced, did wonderful things, failed, and generally lived a full (even if I think I majored in the wrong subjects) life. I sometimes feel that I lived my entire life in the four years I was there. This does not mean that my life ended when I graduated, but that everything that has come after has in some way resembled events that occurred back at Wesleyan. There are obvious exceptions: childbirth and marriage immediately come to mind.

Just to enforce the poignancy of reunion for me, I had a conversation with a woman who would graduate on the following day. She was sitting on Andrus field in one of the chairs the many grads would sit in during commencement. She was very upset that she'd missed out on experiencing everything Wesleyan had to offer. She was feeling friendless and without direction. I assured her that what she was feeling was absolutely natural and that I (and probably many, many others of her peers) felt exactly the same way before graduation. I suggested that she rely on those she felt close to and to not look at the act of graduation as "the end" of her time at Wesleyan. I don't know if any of what I said had any affect on her, but she was laughing when we parted ways.