Weird nostalgia
I was reading the latest issue of our alumni mag from Colby last night, the one in which the boy's birth announcement appears (a mere 12 months after he was born, much like our marriage announcement, except this time they spelled our names correctly).
Whenever I read that magazine, I get this weird nostalgia, remembering how great it was and how much fun I had and how I loved being at Club Colby. Yet I get this feeling while reading the letters from horrible alumni who write with incredible arrogance and obnoxiousness about completely idiotic topics.
In this issue, there was a series of letters responding to an article I didn't read in the last issue where, apparently, an old professor lamented the lack of institutionalized liberalism at the school, reminiscing about the crusades he'd led int he 60s and 70s to make left-wing politics the standard. The letters were the typical smarmy right-wing, Bill O'Reilly, na-na, you lose garbage.
Personally, I don't agree with either side of the argument (despite my suspicions that right-wing philosophy is rooted in pure evil). And what bugs me the most is the condescension dripping from both sides.
Still I found myself fondly remembering the times when I had the same arguments and I was one half of the shouting match (though I tended to write obnoxious arguments, not actually shout them). I look through the class notes and most of the people in there that I remember I remember intensely not liking. I read about members of the administration who I thought were jerks. (Although, it's funny to read about the annual student uprising last spring -- this time they protested Colby's potential investments in companies that do business in Burma, though apparently they didn't check before they staged a demonstration at the trustee's meeting to see exactly which, if any, companies those might be.)
I don't know. I guess I just get nostalgic for the freedom of the atmosphere there, despite realizing how silly most of what I took so seriously was, something that becomes more and more clear as I look back on the younger classes doing the same things.
It was fun being in the bubble for a while.
posted by Torgo @ 8:52 AM
2 Comments:
"The annual student uprising" -- cracked me up.
Yeah, I know what you mean, though. I think the appeal of the bubble is partly its action-devoid-of-total-responsibility. It was so seductive, yet so far removed from reality.
Remember freaking out about accidentally spray-painting the cement outside the student center? That kind of puts it in perspective.
The best part of the spray paint story was then going en masse into the dean's office to admit our 'crime' - and the dean not seeming to care very much.
That summer after graduation when I worked on the history of Colby activism it became clear how there's a traditional uprising every year when the weather turns nice, in that lull between mid-terms and final exams.
Spring in Maine is a great time for a protest.
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