I recently have come back in touch with some old friends from college. We've met up through the years (not often enough) but it has been around 5 or 6 years since the last Pow Wow. I'm looking forward to hanging out with them again, if only for a weekend.
College was such a big part of my life because I studied and learned so much. Not in school, but in Life. I've often wondered what I would be like if I had not attended that school at that time. What would be different? Would I have learned as much? Could I have gone farther from having a better education than what I had (which wasn't much)?
I realize that schoolastically, I could have excelled in some other area, but honestly...what I learned in those years cannot be replaced by book knowledge. My mis-spellings in this post may be proof of that. I mis-spell because I may not have the smarts to spell correctly. I don't really give a crap because of the years that I spent learning what really matters.
I learned that while the sterotypes of my earlier school years carried on to college years, there was so much more to life than that (thank God)! I was fortunate enough to have learned that everyone brings something to the table, however great or small, that can be processed and carried along for times when it was needed.
For example, I cannot tell you how many times that those short years have crossed my mind, eased my mind, and put things into perspective in my mind.
I won't lie. I miss college. I miss those friends, and I miss those experiences. But just as much as that I can't wait to see what's around the bend. If those years, those times, and those friends taught me nothing more, it was that life is about recognizing that your not alone, you can find the greatest treasures from what some see as trash, and you can take what you have learned and build upon it a philosophy that can last a lifetime.
As my hippier friends from those years would say..."Peace, Love, and promote the use of condoms!"
