Favorite memory…

College students are returning to class (in person or virtually).  It reminds me of my last visit to my alma mater which has been a couple of years ago now.  It brings back this memory… 

“What is your favorite memory?”  

There I was… face to face with an 18-year-old freshman between classes when I returned to my college for Homecoming weekend.  I was one of several returning alums; I’m not sure why she singled me out. 

Arriving early for Homecoming is my inside joke.  I like to say I do something Fridays now that I rarely did as an undergraduate – I actually attend classes.  This year’s visit started with a multi-dimensional calculus class at 8 am.  Hello!  

Perhaps this freshman, just 10 weeks into her undergraduate pursuits, singled me out because she saw the Athletic Hall of Fame patch on my jacket.  She was wearing her high school Letter Jacket – maybe sports were a source of shared favorite memories? 

Regardless, I was unprepared; caught off guard; even a little embarrassed.    When called on I actually couldn’t remember any favorite memories from my college experience other than the way my basketball coach Harley Knosher and his wife Peg “adopted” me during my trying times.  

Do you remember your favorite college memory?  Perhaps you were a member of a Club?  Here’s how the Physics Club promoted their membership: 

Unfortunately, when I was in college I didn’t have a Club. 

Oh I was involved.  Played on the men’s’ basketball team; started; was a co-captain; yet all the while distant from my teammates.  Having been addicted to nicotine since the age of twelve, smoking was not exactly an accepted activity.  While my teammates would gather after practice for social engagement and comradery, I would excuse myself - remove myself - and seek solitude while feeding my habit.  No Club for that. 

I joined a fraternity – Phi Gamma Delta.  I even lived in the Fiji house for part of a year.  I developed a life-long friendship with my upper classman, fraternity brother, and roommate, Bob Lindsay.  But I didn’t finish out the year living in the fraternity house and participating in the wide range of Greek comradery.  

While my fraternity brothers were reveling in those activities that help adolescents transcend into adulthood, I was already in an advanced placement program.  March of my sophomore year; at the age of 20; I married my high school sweetheart (she, 19).  There was no Club on campus for young newlyweds. 

I was admitted to college because of my high school academic accomplishments.  I was smart – but I wasn’t disciplined - and that weakness hit hard. 

My lack of discipline resulted in academic probation after my 1^st term sophomore year.  I had to attend summer school to get off of probation.  You guessed it – no Summer School Club. 

The good news is I graduated in four years and was debt free, too!  True, I graduated in the bottom half of my class.  Who has ever heard of a Club for we bottom-half folk?  Of course, our S.T.E.M. brethren know that: 

Statistically speaking, approximately one-half of all graduates fall in the bottom half of each graduating class. 

At least I left with a degree, a wife, and a sense of humor!  

So when this young, impressionable freshman asked me for my favorite memory, I could offer only a vague reference to the “overall experience”.  Hopefully, she found another alum that provided a better answer. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.