The Big Event

So... today was The Big Event...

For those who don't know, The Big Event is one of Texas A&M's biggest and most well known traditions.  From six students cleaning a cemetery 32 years ago to over 20,000 students serving the community of Bryan/College Station, and as of today even serving worldwide in Germany, Spain, Italy, and Pakistan.  The Big Event has come a long way...

I debated for quite a while whether to actually sign up to work or not.  It's a complicated mind game I play every so often.  I love being a student again... but then again, I'm almost 50... and all these other students are young and they've got their life in front of them... and I'm not so young and I've already lived most of my life... and these students are still learning to be leaders and get involved... and I've already had those opportunities, whether or not I took them... 

But I did it, I signed up... and I got up... 

I love to come up with word pictures for my thoughts and feelings.  It's something I tried to start learning to do many years ago and I find that it sometimes will help even me understand exactly what it is I'm feeling... 

So as I park this morning, and get out of the car, and look at the masses of Aggie student humanity surrounding me... as I listen to the excited calls of one friend to another across the parking lots... as I hear the laughter of the groups of friends... I feel alone, and out of place...  

I started trying to come up with a word picture... first thing that popped in my mind was an old cucumber (I cleaned out the refrigerator yesterday) but that didn't really work... then it hit me... I feel like a spotted banana... one of those that has gotten just a little bit squishy because it's been sitting there getting a little too ripe... and all around it in the bowl are these bright yellow firm bananas and these slightly green almost ripe bananas... it actually works well as a good word picture for me because the older the banana, the sweeter they are; and in some literature I've read recently, the older the banana, the better they are for you... yeah... that's me... extra sweet and good for you... 

But, I digress... back to The Big Event...

Do you know how hard it is to find someone you don't know, have never met, don't know what they look like, in a crowd of 20,000?  There were a couple of moments I felt like backing out, going home, calling it quits, that no one would miss me... but I didn't... I waited, and I looked, and I'm so glad that I did... 

Turns out my group leader went to my high school!  What a small world!  And yeah, even though I am old enough to be their mother, they all welcomed me, talked to me, took me in for the day... I became an honorary member of Pi Phi Sorority for the day... and we worked our tails off... and I listened to them laugh, talk about all the little stuff that goes on in their lives, and I smiled... 

I am different from them, but only because I'm an older version... and it's okay to feel a little out of place because it means whatever I'm doing is taking me out of my comfort zone and making me stretch my boundaries and learn new things... 

So today for The Big Event... I showed up... I did it... and I made a couple of new friends, I had lots of fun, I was impressed by the next generation... 

So what sort of thing are you wrestling with because you know it will feel uncomfortable?  it will take you out of your comfort zone?  it will stretch you? Well guess what... just do it!  Because it just might be something big that you'll miss if you don't... 

photo courtesy of author

If you're interested in finding out more about The Big Event, go check it out... 
The Big Event on Facebook

Ancient History... or so it seems...

Ancient History... is really a matter of perspective... 

Sure, there's the dictionary definition, but all the more often we tend to use our own perspective as our working definition... and sometimes ancient history can be as recent as only a few years...

It's funny that younger students think "this is how it's always been" and I think "when the heck did they start doing this?"... so I figured a retrospective might be in order...

photo courtesy of:
www.aggiecampusology.com

When I started at Texas A&M...


Bonfire was held on Duncan Field behind the Quad and it always burned the week of Thanksgiving for the t.u. game... during the Fall Semester you could sign up for Bonfire Buddies and exchange small gifts with your buddy up until the t.u. game

West Campus consisted of green pastures grazed by Aggie cows which produced some fine milk which went into Aggie ice cream which could be bought at the creamery in front of the Commons

The best place to get a burger was The Cowhop, and you ordered a Cow Pie and Fries... best hole in the wall place to eat... ever

Cars could actually drive through campus... all the way through

There were no parking garages on campus, and if you weren't an upperclassman you parked in the surface lots across the railroad tracks... and buses didn't go there

Blinn, in Bryan, did not exist, and there was no feeder school for A&M... there was no automatic admission for the top 10%... and I got into A&M with a 1000 SAT score

No one... absolutely no one... ever put pennies on Sully's boots in order to gain favor before tests

There was an actual 12th Man Kickoff Return Team during football games thanks to Coach Jackie Sherrill

There was no Rec Center, the outside swimming pool was right next to Kyle Field, and the north end of Kyle Field only had one deck

Everyone walking across campus would look at other people, and carry on conversations, because there were no earbuds, because there were no ipods

There were no cell phones... so when you walked into class people actually talked to each other because there was no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to check and there was no one to text since texting didn't exist yet

  photo courtesy of:
www.aggiecampusology.com

Reveille IV retired and Reveille V was installed 

To have cash for a Friday night date you would cash a check at the front desk of the hotel in the MSC... ATMs were new technology and locations were rare

You could have a TV in your dorm room, but there were no DVD players in existence, VCRs were brand new technology and very rare to find

Microwaves were banned in the dorm room as well as every other kind of cooking device... you might cook hot dogs in your coffee maker and make a grilled cheese sandwich with your iron though if you were desperate

Ancient History... is really a matter of perspective... 

The current students are forming their own version of Ancient History... in a few years they'll come back and they will begin to say "back in my day"... and someday they'll tell their own kids the stories, and their own kids won't believe them, because their own kids don't understand Ancient History yet... they don't have the perspective... 

There's a First Time for Everything...

Firsts are never easy...

your first step... 

your first day of school...

your first crush...

your first car...

your first day of college...

your second first day of college...

your first blog...

... and they're often filled with uncertainty, insecurities, fears  

But most of the time the things you're dreading most about the firsts you're fixing to experience just don't happen.  While it might not always turn out as wonderful as you were delusionally dreaming it to be, it rarely turns out to be your worst-case-scenario.

So here I am with my first blog.  Even though several of my friends have encouraged me to start one before and even though it seems like it could be fun, I've never done it, until now.  But now I'm required to.  

And I have no idea what to write about for this first one.

You know that old technique that everyone always says about envisioning your audience in their underwear when you have to make a speech so that you'll feel more comfortable?  Well right now I feel like I'm the one in my underwear.  

I have nothing profound to say at the moment.  I have no words of wisdom.  I have no great revelations.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  

But sometimes I guess that's part of the importance of firsts.  Just the fact that you get it done.  That you jump in with both feet, damn the consequences, and do it.  Firsts will happen to all us, they happen every day.  Some firsts are big, some are small, some are monumental, most are inconsequential.  But we do them, because we have to, because we want to, because they need to happen.

I sort of wanted my first post to be one of those monumental firsts.  Something profound and brilliant.  Something to make everyone go "ooooh, she's really something".  But this first seems to be one of those inconsequential firsts, those things that just happen because they need to.  And really, that's okay, because that's life, and life happens, and continues to happen, and firsts happen all along the way, every day, in every way.

Being back in school at this stage in my life isn't a first I ever expected to happen, but it's one of those times in life that you actually get to live one of those delusional dreams you've had.  It's a first, even if it's a second first.

...but there's a first time for everything, and every time is a perfect time for a first...