Sunday, April 26, 2015
Travels
I went back to my undergrad for a bit on Friday. They had asked me to make a speech for Honors Day, and for reasons that I can't explain (I like making speeches, maybe?), I agreed. So I spent about seven hours in the car to speak for ten minutes and spend about another forty-five minutes judging poster presentations I was in no way qualified to judge. Well, I guess I was qualified, since the judging criteria were all about style points, but I understood very little of the substance, which dealt with biology and nursing. I did understand nearly all of the prepositions involved, however. And I'm very good at smiling and asking "do you have any ideas for future research in this area?" A winning combination.
Anyway, it is always weird to go back to campus. Or perhaps I should say it is usually weird, because for the first few years after I graduated I still knew people there and it was no big deal. But now I just feel this strange sense of remove from everything that's going on while I'm there. They tore down a bunch of the crappy old houses where we always used to have parties. They built a new science building and turned the old one into a building for the school of business; I have no idea what they did with all of the creepy stuffed birds. They added crosswalks with flashing lights. It's not that it's better or worse; it's just not my place any more. And I am, of course, fifteen years older. That probably can't help.
I don't know, it's probably good for the past to remain the past. At least that's what I picked up from Back to the Future. Not to mention Back to the Future: Part III.
I went back to my undergrad for a bit on Friday. They had asked me to make a speech for Honors Day, and for reasons that I can't explain (I like making speeches, maybe?), I agreed. So I spent about seven hours in the car to speak for ten minutes and spend about another forty-five minutes judging poster presentations I was in no way qualified to judge. Well, I guess I was qualified, since the judging criteria were all about style points, but I understood very little of the substance, which dealt with biology and nursing. I did understand nearly all of the prepositions involved, however. And I'm very good at smiling and asking "do you have any ideas for future research in this area?" A winning combination.
Anyway, it is always weird to go back to campus. Or perhaps I should say it is usually weird, because for the first few years after I graduated I still knew people there and it was no big deal. But now I just feel this strange sense of remove from everything that's going on while I'm there. They tore down a bunch of the crappy old houses where we always used to have parties. They built a new science building and turned the old one into a building for the school of business; I have no idea what they did with all of the creepy stuffed birds. They added crosswalks with flashing lights. It's not that it's better or worse; it's just not my place any more. And I am, of course, fifteen years older. That probably can't help.
I don't know, it's probably good for the past to remain the past. At least that's what I picked up from Back to the Future. Not to mention Back to the Future: Part III.
