Why your college years are so important

ROOSEVELT HALL

I am beginning a series about college-life.  I am thinking of calling it, "been there...done that".  There's an "LOL" for ya!  This morning, over breakfast, my ten-year old daughter and mye started discussing my years on the college campus.  The reason it came up was that today is downpouring rain.  I was commenting about how I felt bad for our neighbors who lived further than one house away from the Bus Stop because we were standing watching for the school bus from a dry porch.  This moment made me think about my five years at URI in Kingston RI...living on campus in the dorm...walking everywhere on this huge campus...having to drag yourself out in the pouring rain to eat or go to class or rehearse your french horn or work.  This was the first time that Annika really connected any interest at all to "college life".  Her remark was, "I always pictured college as some super-huge building, not a bunch of buildings".  I explained to her that some colleges are the way she described, but that URI was very different from that.  For example, our local community college, CCRI, is the way she described.  We live only a few miles from CCRI and we pass by it all the time on our way to the bank or to the mall or WalMart.  So in her mind, college looks this way.  CCRI is a great school, and I personally would be proud of Annika if she wanted to go there, but I guess there is that little piece of me that wants her to choose a college more like the one  went to.  In Annika's case, she wants to study Theatre.  It just so happens that I also studied in the Fine Arts Department as a Music Major and had many college friends from the Theatre and Art department.  I worked closely with them on productions all the time.  Knowing that my daughter and I have even this amount in common give me a thrill!

So I have begun to compose a "Walking tour" for my daughter, which will include maps, summaries and a guided tour of the campus in the Spring of 2012.  Annika is driven to achieve scholastically so I think this will be a fun way to embed the desire for higher education into her subconscious feed.  With any luck, it will remain a strong part of her subconscious and allow her to always have a perspective about what it means to aim higher.  That is the thing about universities...they inspire us to always aim higher...they are transforming themselves...they have an open-end, not a closed-mind.  College is where most genius is developed.

QUAD

THE LIBRARY...ONE OF MY FAVORITE PLACES ON CAMPUS

One of my idols of history, MR. WALT DISNEY, was a
poorly-educated man of little means who rose up to be a magnificent icon of Amercian Culture.  But had Walt ever gone to college, who knows where we would be!  Had I never gone to college, I would have been a very lost soul.  So much of the woman  am today began there.  I look forward to sharing more on this subject over the next 3 months of winter.  Later, I will be eager to report about our campus tour and hopefully include video footage and definitely personal pictures.