Blanchard Hall, the "heartbeat" of the Wheaton campus.
David and I are in the Chicago suburb of Wheaton for my…ahem…25th College Reunion. Today was the warm-up day, the day for us to sneak onto campus, register, wander around looking enviously at the new and improved bookstore, the new and improved dining room, the new and improved student center, the new and improved….well you get the idea. It seems that all is new and improved except, perhaps, the returning alumni! For us there is nothing new and not much improved!!
Or is that true?
Nothing makes you think about the person you have become like your college reunions. If you are prone to a mid-life crisis, a reunion is where you are likely to find it! But as I mingle with these friends who started out on life’s adult journey with me, I’ve realized that I could never have predicted or scripted the course of my crazy life.
In the words of a friend of mine, Bob Goff, my life is inexplicable.
My mind works like one big set of tinker toys, connecting one person to another I just met. I connect books to people, people to projects and to each other. I file information away to be connected to other information at some other time, some other place. I find trends in the challenges facing people who are trying to make a difference in this world, and try to encourage them. I love the people under my wings.
These are the things I do. And as I stand in this rich soil of Wheaton, the place where I started to be who I am, I am coming to appreciate who God has seen fit to make me. Make no mistake: it’s tempting. It’s tempting to look for the new and improved version of everything. It’s tempting to find a new job title that maybe describes me, places me in a category so others can easily figure me out. It’s tempting to wonder about paths not taken, twists and turns.
But I love my life. And I loved standing in the bookstore among all the books I have read and loved. I loved that a faculty member stopped to ask me about our iPads, and whether she should get one for her husband. I loved that I knew the answer to that, and to so many other questions she asked.
David and I agree that we would have LOVED to do college with the technology these kids are toting around in their backpacks. It’s an amazing moment in history to be engaged in learning.
On the other hand, it’s also an amazing moment in history to be out changing the world. And you can’t do that by being jealous of the “new and improved!”
However that salad bar was pretty awesome…and the ice cream machines…and the ice cream topping bar…
Can you ever escape your past?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Marla,
So happy to see you writing again. What an experience to go back to your reunion. Do you feel like you are watching an old movie. Does it seem surreal? I can’t even begin to imagine all the feelings that come flooding back especially to that child you were when you were going there and ahem….. you thought you were so grown up!
The 25th was an interesting mix of old and new. I enjoyed the weekend on campus but realize, in many respects, it’s no longer our school.
I sort of agree. I think the thing that struck me, Lyndon, was the surface level we stayed on. I would have really liked to know more about who we all turned out to be. Some data mining might have been interesting (as in…we had 113 out of 500 who at one time or another were in fulltime Christian service; 58 doctors; 29 homeschoolers…). I would have loved to hear about how life beat some of us up, but that we survived and learned and grew up in the process. I would have liked to relate as adults for once, not bound by our cliques and college-year selves. There are some amazing stories buried in the midst of us. And imagine if we all managed to connect on a level that resulted in some sort of synergy for the kingdom? Wow! And what if, when we came back to campus, we had the option to participate in some kind of seminar/learning project?
I guess I was hoping for some more meaningful reactions, but found that we all stuck pretty much to our predetermined roles. Opportunity lost.
But my takeaway from the weekend, ironically, is that I really like who I have become in these 25 years. I like what David and I do for the kingdom, and the people we do it with. I like thinking about the big pictures in life and not the smallest details. So if I can walk away with that from the reunion…not a bad time investment!