It’s weird that on my final visit to Georgetown before my daughter’s graduation I ended up staying in the hotel on campus. Not far from the places in which I’ve stayed over the years, but a bit of a hike from all the wonderful shopping. And eerily close to all the reminders of her freshman move-in day, which, according to the calendar, occurred four years ago but frankly I’m skeptical. I’m sure it’s only been about a week.
A few nights ago, I sat at a table with the young women with whom my daughter now shares an apartment, the girls I originally met all those years ago in the hallway of her freshman dorm. They are all beautiful and bright, representing every region of the country, every undergraduate college, and even every hair color. They will be leaving each other soon as they disperse, interestingly, to major consulting firms in various cities, but they are already planning their annual summer beach vacation for 2012. I hope they can keep it going, at least for a few years.
I lost touch with my college friends quickly; most of them were distant memories by the time I received my diploma, even though I graduated on time. I had begun a pattern of disconnecting during those college years that still haunts me today; Facebook has enabled me to reconnect with some, but I often regret that I failed to hang on to certain people along the way. The journey might have felt a bit less lonesome.
In some ways, I feel more at home on the grounds of Georgetown than I ever felt on my own college campus. From the beginning, my daughter has welcomed me into her life there, and her friends have embraced me (and all the other friends’ parents) as if we are all members of some oddly diverse cousins’ club. One of my daughter’s closest friends recently complained to her that I had appeared to “unfriend” her on Facebook. My daughter assured her that I hadn’t, simply because she assumes I would have no idea how to do that. Not true, I do know how, but any unfriending in this situation was purely accidental. As soon as I was able to access the Internet – the slow pace of the South extended, somehow, to my laptop – I rectified the situation.
As my daughter and her friends, these accomplished and fiercely loyal young men and women, go their separate ways, I take comfort in the knowledge that – thanks not only to modern social networking but also to far better attitudes than I had at their age – they will be there for each other. They will support each other through their next phase of growing pains, attend each others’ weddings, maybe even stick around long enough to get to know each others’ children. I certainly hope so.
The only good thing that came out of my college experience was my roommate and best friend. We are still as close as ever, even after 30+ years. I can't even recall other friends' names from that era. I think I purposely forgot them!
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