Yes, I went to the Wheaton College 10 year reunion. I'm glad I did, but i don't know, it's just so different. We live in the Chicagoland area so have been on campus off and on in the last eight years. You have these four years of memories and then want to "relive" them with fellow alumni... and well, I'm an optimistic kind of guy, so I found joy in hearing people share what they're doing and how the last ten years have been, but maybe i'm also more of a realist and realize that the people i first met 14 years ago and graduated with 10 years ago are different people, have spouses, kids; though we share a common past as our journeys intersected in college, we have since taken different paths in life.
The events only last a few hours and we have maybe a few minutes of "doing the rounds" saying hello to everyone, "what have you been doing? where do you work? how did I know you? are you married? have kids?" Many people from our class were not there (maybe 100 of 500+ who graduated attended) and then people from other classes before and after us, and professors and administrators who have moved on, the absence of whom somehow robs the experience of its full impact. My feelings were both of gratitude at being able to see everyone and have a common weekend together with the sense that it was not all I'd want it to be. A good friend from class of 1996 once talked about an experience and wanting to capture it in a bottle so you could open it whenever and just reminisce and recreate the joys... it felt like I wanted all those four years to somehow come back and they did to a degree, but of course it's never entirely possible.
What was exciting was to hear of people that were still faithful to their God, their faith, pursuing excellence, integrity. And even the many absences were folks who are out all over the world investing their lives For Christ and His Kingdom (the college motto).
2 comments:
Mu bien dicho.
I feel like i understand everything you expressed.
Visita mi blog @ timreedhome.blogspot.com
un abrazo
Faith and I definitely were bummed not to be there. Up until this year, we have probably only skipped homecoming like 3 times entirely. It is always fun, yet I understand the sense of incompleteness, or disappointment too.
I think for the first couple of years after graduation, the reconnecting was really fun (and easy since hardly anyone had kids). It was easier to 're-live' the good ol' days. Campus looked and felt much like it did when we were there. But with each passing year, the campus looks a little different. There are less and less familiar faces there, and you feel less and less at home. Yet it's similar enough to the place you once loved to let that echo of a special place and a special time reverberate around in your heart a bit. But the thing about echoes - you need kind of an empty space for them to be possible. In our case, that empty space is created by the years as life moves on.
But at the same time, it's not all sad - it's hard to resist going back. I've always said that my years at Wheaton were unique in that, in all likelihood, I will never be in a place filled with such 'special' people. (I normally wouldn't be let in. yuk-yuk) The collection of intelligent, gifted, and faithful people is hard to imagine being replicated anywhere on this side of heaven. With that in mind, even if I can only catch up with someone shortly, it is still usually refreshing to reconnect. And I think one of the things we can celebrate is that all of these special people are living their lives in their place and time, as appointed by God. They are not all wasted on each other, but instead are out blessing those around them where they are.
Way to be there and represent for T7, and 'the guys'. Glad you got to hang with Pete and Jess too.
Later
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