Pointless College Stories: Out on a Limb, X
Much like word_geek, I may hang up this narrative for a bit just because ten posts is a nice round number. It is also a good transition from my college experience at a branch campus to one at the main campus...
At the end of two years at McKeesport, I had just about tapped the place of all of its glamor. Choosing relevant courses became more difficult, the luster of college life started to fade into the routine and though there was still a strong cadre of friends to keep life interesting many had either cycled out or dropped out or just fell out of the group in general.
My roommate had decided right before the end of the semester that he was going to join the military. It was pretty sudden and I wondered if there were underlying reasons for it besides the aimlessness he felt he needed to address. Zaphod had also disappeared to a community college recently and I hadn't seen him as often as I would like.
This left me in a bit of a pickle for folks I wanted share an apartment with when I got to State College. Luckily, Jason, Mike and Frank were looking for a fourth and I joined them for my pilgrimage to the main campus.
Frank wasn't someone I really hung out with but when I met him, I felt a kinship with him that served as a catalyst to having us share a room while Jason and Mike took the other. Had I managed to keep tabs on him, he would have made a fine Mantid.
Frank, in fact, was my cohort in devising the base recipe for chili that everyone is so fond of... because we would make it just about every week. Each time we tried to make it hotter than the last. There were one or two batches that we deemed nearly inedible, not that it stopped us from consuming it anyway.
There were a couple of other friends who made the journey to the main campus as I did and though we got together fairly regularly, since they were scattered amongst the different dorms on campus, it made it a little more difficult to gather. On top of which, I was hanging out with Squid and Elwood a good deal letting them serve as sherpas in this new territory to explore. As if that didn't divide my free time enough, I had started hanging out with some folks I had shared classes with.
Undaunted, I made a number of attempts to introduce the difference groups, but social groups sometimes do not mix the way you expect them to and in the end I had to make some tough decisions about where I wanted to spend my time. As it turns out, most of that time was in Atherton hall.
So, slowly, I started drifting out of my former circles and the only guy to make the trip with me was Zaphod, who popped up in State College after my first semester there. Do I regret the shift? Not really. The only constant is that people change and while I was looking for explore this larger world before me, the others seemed more intent on keeping pretty insular to the McKeesport crowd.
I will catch myself thinking of these friends from time to time (much I am doing now) and wonder how they are getting on and whether or not my memory creeps into their heads as well. Lives can drift in and out of view before you realize it. All the more reason to make the most of it while you can.
At the end of two years at McKeesport, I had just about tapped the place of all of its glamor. Choosing relevant courses became more difficult, the luster of college life started to fade into the routine and though there was still a strong cadre of friends to keep life interesting many had either cycled out or dropped out or just fell out of the group in general.
My roommate had decided right before the end of the semester that he was going to join the military. It was pretty sudden and I wondered if there were underlying reasons for it besides the aimlessness he felt he needed to address. Zaphod had also disappeared to a community college recently and I hadn't seen him as often as I would like.
This left me in a bit of a pickle for folks I wanted share an apartment with when I got to State College. Luckily, Jason, Mike and Frank were looking for a fourth and I joined them for my pilgrimage to the main campus.
Frank wasn't someone I really hung out with but when I met him, I felt a kinship with him that served as a catalyst to having us share a room while Jason and Mike took the other. Had I managed to keep tabs on him, he would have made a fine Mantid.
Frank, in fact, was my cohort in devising the base recipe for chili that everyone is so fond of... because we would make it just about every week. Each time we tried to make it hotter than the last. There were one or two batches that we deemed nearly inedible, not that it stopped us from consuming it anyway.
There were a couple of other friends who made the journey to the main campus as I did and though we got together fairly regularly, since they were scattered amongst the different dorms on campus, it made it a little more difficult to gather. On top of which, I was hanging out with Squid and Elwood a good deal letting them serve as sherpas in this new territory to explore. As if that didn't divide my free time enough, I had started hanging out with some folks I had shared classes with.
Undaunted, I made a number of attempts to introduce the difference groups, but social groups sometimes do not mix the way you expect them to and in the end I had to make some tough decisions about where I wanted to spend my time. As it turns out, most of that time was in Atherton hall.
So, slowly, I started drifting out of my former circles and the only guy to make the trip with me was Zaphod, who popped up in State College after my first semester there. Do I regret the shift? Not really. The only constant is that people change and while I was looking for explore this larger world before me, the others seemed more intent on keeping pretty insular to the McKeesport crowd.
I will catch myself thinking of these friends from time to time (much I am doing now) and wonder how they are getting on and whether or not my memory creeps into their heads as well. Lives can drift in and out of view before you realize it. All the more reason to make the most of it while you can.