alumni review

[jfb]

I spent two years at a small liberal arts college in rural Massachusetts, and then two years at a different small liberal arts college in my hometown in rural Minnesota. It's not fair of me, but I'll blame these two half-durations for the fact that I made few lasting friends in college. Surely it couldn't be because I was too shy or distant to bond at the time, or too lazy or disorganized to stay in touch later.

Aside from a couple of people that were with me in both high school and college, I no longer know anyone I knew at my old schools. I remember some of my college classmates fondly, but in most cases can't even think of their last names. In the past couple of years I've had friendly encounters with a couple of people who I must have seen around campus--"you look familiar... you didn't go to...?"--but we didn't know each other in school, and we met later only by marvelous coincidence.

Despite all this haziness, each time a new issue of either of my alumni magazines arrives, I pore over the class notes for my year and the surrounding ones. I note with interest that my old anarchist friend has a second daughter, or that the campus conservative has become a full professor, or that someone named Greg, who might be the Greg I knew but might not, has moved to New York. But I think really I'm just hoping to find out what happened to the girl that made me stammer and blush and talk a lot about things I knew because somehow I thought that was the way to get her to like me. I guess I don't know why I still read the alumni magazine from the school she wasn't at.

Anyway, a small marker of the passing of time, from the latest issue: A guy who graduated the same year I did from the same college I did--I don't recognize his name or face--has been appointed principal of my high school.

Comments

[copperqueen.livejournal.com]

Sweet story, but ... dude, how old are you?

=)

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Old enough to have noticed how my year is gradually creeping away from the end of the magazine. My ten-year reunion's coming up, which isn't that long, but I've got a terrible memory.

[copperqueen.livejournal.com]

You know, one of the benefits (and drawbacks) of not having actually graduated from any school yet is not having any anniversaries.

But I found it interesting that you didn't form too many (or any?) long lasting relationships from college. That is contrary to what one would expect, and yet very much in keeping with how things tend to turn out.

[jfb.livejournal.com]

As it happens, I did form a lot of lasting relationships during college--they just weren't at my college. Most were people I hung out with online, and sometimes didn't meet in person for years. (There are some I still haven't met.)

I've moved several times since then--the Bay Area is the first place I've stayed more than two years--and that online community has been sort of a stabilizing force through all of that, for better or worse.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

One of my classmates (he worked for me on the school newspaper) was the journalist who was killed in East Timor during the unrest.

Another, a girl I had a fairly intense crush on, was lost at sea several years back.

And, of course -- many, many marriages and children from the survivors.

[jfb.livejournal.com]

I also turn with some trepidation to the obits in each issue, but so far, if anyone I knew has died, they didn't write the alumni association about it.