In my drowsy daydreams that float through my head before I fall asleep, my future looks something like Kathleen Kelly in You’ve Got Mail. I run a quaint little shop, write when I want, eat what I want, and live in a giant apartment filled with quilts and typewriters. That’s why a big school with huge, industrial classes and a promise to make sure I graduate as early as possible did not appeal to me. I wasn’t doing this so I could get a job. I wanted to wander through college, reading things and petting cats. So you can imagine my surprise at finding myself behind the desk of a corporate powerhouse for the summer.
I’m sitting in a Starbucks surrounded by people I have never seen before, which I guess is pretty par for the course in the real world but pretty easy to forget when you go to Kenyon.
A word of advice from a Kenyon Alum returning to campus for her 5th reunion: "Cherish your time at Kenyon because you'll never realize how much you love it until you leave."
Words of Wisdom from a Kenyon Alum returning for his 20th reunion: "Kenyon has Wireless?? That's amazing!"
One of my all-time favorite jobs on campus is helping out with the Reunion Weekend for Kenyon Alums. Last year, I was the class liaison for the all-male class of 1967, and, this past weekend, I was the class liaison for the Kenyon class of 1978.
I had a few special things I wanted to do before leaving campus. With the ink still drying on my diploma and with a shiny black "2013" tassel swinging between my fingers, I had to slip away from all the graduation hubbub and be with just myself. That's the weird thing about graduation day, I realized. I thought it would be about me, but it's actually all about the people who come to see you-- your family, your professors, your friends in the audience. When I finally got a minute alone in the late afternoon, I saw that I had been too busy to let "it" hit me, but inevitably, it did, as it does to us all, on Middle Path.
I was probably saying something about the chicken when this picture was taken.
