Closing the College Chapter
I was afforded the opportunity to recruit for my company at my alma mater this past Tuesday and Wednesday. I got paid to take an all expenses paid trip to Philly- how could I pass up the chance? Plus, this trip gave me a valid excuse to not be on client site for a couple days.
The truth is that this trip would constitute my third time back to Penn since graduation. The first time was Homecoming back in November. It was definitely a good time. I got to see so many friends and hang out at the same old places. It was my first time back on campus, and it was weird. Everything was so familiar, but I knew I no longer belonged. It was particularly odd, for example, to leave Penn for the night and stay elsewhere in the Philly area (in Haverford at a friend's place). I had lived on that campus for 4 years and often stumbled to my dorm on a late night, so it was odd to be drunk and driven away at 2 AM to a suburb. It really hit me then that everyone had moved on. My friends were no longer at Penn. Life at Penn went on without us. It was time for me to really get over it. Sure I could keep the friends and memories I made, but this part of my life was over. I think I finally got the message then.
The second time I returned was in February. I was asked by my company to help recruit juniors and sophomores for our internship program. To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect or what I wanted to accomplish by going. I was just more excited to have the chance to go back to campus for free and get away from real work for a couple days. As such, I'd say the trip wasn't so meaningful. I did have an EXCELLENT dinner at Pod. :) But my hotel wasn't even on campus, and I didn't even have much time to walk around or hang out. I was on campus for dinner and went downtown with a good friend to a bar I had never even been to in my 4 years in Philly. I was then recruiting the entire next day. I sat in Career Services all day greeting candidates, which pretty much brought back awful memories about On Campus Recruiting. We ordered in Cosi for lunch, and then I left for the airport. All business and no time for nostalgia.
This third time, though, and likely final time (at least for a while), was just great. I arrived around lunch time and met up with a senior friend who is anxious to finish with classes but sad to soon be leaving college behind- just as I was this time last year. (See blogs from Spring 2005. :) ) We ate MexiCali burritos at the tables outside of Huntsman/ABP for lunch. Lunch was familiar and comforting. We then went to Bucks County Coffee where I got my favorite hot chocolate. I walked her to her class and then proceeded to just walk around campus. It's Spring time in Philadelphia, and during this time the campus is in its early days out of hibernation. There was so much hustle and bustle outside. The awful but oddly familiar smell of flowers and the manure surrouding them was comforting. That's definitely a sign of Spring at Penn and it was one of the first things a best friend/4-year college roommate and I noticed about the campus during our initial visits as accepted, eager beaver high school seniors.
I then spent time in the bookstore- the cool place to go on your first Friday night in college. :) I of course bought another shirt and just sat by the escalators reading magazines. (No one ever buys those magazines.) Next up was dinner. I went to Walnut Hill College for the PwC sponsored etiquitte dinner, hosted by Wharton Women. It was three hours of hell, but the students at my table were freshman, and they kept it fun. We made faces at each other when, for example, the instructor showed her velcro encrusted plates and silverware that helped her show just how to place your knife and fork between bites as opposed to being completely done, for both American and Continental styles of dining of course. It was sort of like having your first class ever in college with a grad student for an instructor who called herself a professor and breast fed the whole hour and a half of class. (Yes, I can make the comparison because that was my first college class experience.) It brought back some amusing memories and made me happy that Penn still seemed to have happy but skeptical and sarcastic students, like me of course. :)
I then went out to New Deck's kareoke night with two 5th year friends who were great friends of mine during college. It was great just sitting around, having drinks, trading politically incorrect stories, and having cheese fries at midnight. It was just like old times; the scene, faces, and banter were all so familiar and comforting. We stayed at the bar til closing at the early hour of 2 AM. I wasn't quite drunk, but I walked back to my hotel room at the Inn at Penn, which is situated across the street from my senior year dorm and as "on campus" as you can get for a hotel (location-wise, of course, and not quality of the mattress, let's say- gotta love those 30 year old mattresses in Penn dorms).
The next morning, instead of taking a cab to the airport, I walked through campus one more time and took the train to the airport from the University City SEPTA stop. I took it all in one last time, especially since I didn't know when I'd be coming back. I rolled my suitcase across Locust Walk and along Houston Hall. Oddly, that was exactly how I first visited Penn on my own- walking from the train to Logan Hall along Houston. I made it to the University City train station, and as expected, the SEPTA train was 10 minutes late and the ticket machine ate two dollars before it started deducting the dollars I inserted from the amount I owed for the ticket. How appropriate.
My likely final trip to Penn for a while was, I think, the best one. The first one was a bit overwhelming. It was the first time back to campus. It also entailed seeing all my friends from various aspects of my Penn life at once, which was not how I hung out with friends in college. And it was soooo crowded with plenty of other nostalgic, old alumni. It just wasn't what I was looking for. The second one was just all business. I had barely any time to see anyone or anything. I felt as though I might as well have been recruiting at another nameless and unfamiliar college. This last trip, I felt, resembled what my life was like in college. I saw one friend for lunch, had "class" (or work at the dinner), and then went out with a couple more friends and ended the night barely buzzed and wreaking of smoke. (You can still smoke in Philly bars and restaurants.) I think this trip was my true closure. I came into it knowing not to expect things to be the same as before and that everyone had moved on. Yet I got to relive, just for a day, my college life while already leading the once uncertain life away from college and knowing that this one day was it. I feel lucky to have had this chance to satisfyingly and peacefully close the Penn chapter of my life and truly appreciate the new, wonderful life chapter that is writing itself as I write this blog.
The truth is that this trip would constitute my third time back to Penn since graduation. The first time was Homecoming back in November. It was definitely a good time. I got to see so many friends and hang out at the same old places. It was my first time back on campus, and it was weird. Everything was so familiar, but I knew I no longer belonged. It was particularly odd, for example, to leave Penn for the night and stay elsewhere in the Philly area (in Haverford at a friend's place). I had lived on that campus for 4 years and often stumbled to my dorm on a late night, so it was odd to be drunk and driven away at 2 AM to a suburb. It really hit me then that everyone had moved on. My friends were no longer at Penn. Life at Penn went on without us. It was time for me to really get over it. Sure I could keep the friends and memories I made, but this part of my life was over. I think I finally got the message then.
The second time I returned was in February. I was asked by my company to help recruit juniors and sophomores for our internship program. To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect or what I wanted to accomplish by going. I was just more excited to have the chance to go back to campus for free and get away from real work for a couple days. As such, I'd say the trip wasn't so meaningful. I did have an EXCELLENT dinner at Pod. :) But my hotel wasn't even on campus, and I didn't even have much time to walk around or hang out. I was on campus for dinner and went downtown with a good friend to a bar I had never even been to in my 4 years in Philly. I was then recruiting the entire next day. I sat in Career Services all day greeting candidates, which pretty much brought back awful memories about On Campus Recruiting. We ordered in Cosi for lunch, and then I left for the airport. All business and no time for nostalgia.
This third time, though, and likely final time (at least for a while), was just great. I arrived around lunch time and met up with a senior friend who is anxious to finish with classes but sad to soon be leaving college behind- just as I was this time last year. (See blogs from Spring 2005. :) ) We ate MexiCali burritos at the tables outside of Huntsman/ABP for lunch. Lunch was familiar and comforting. We then went to Bucks County Coffee where I got my favorite hot chocolate. I walked her to her class and then proceeded to just walk around campus. It's Spring time in Philadelphia, and during this time the campus is in its early days out of hibernation. There was so much hustle and bustle outside. The awful but oddly familiar smell of flowers and the manure surrouding them was comforting. That's definitely a sign of Spring at Penn and it was one of the first things a best friend/4-year college roommate and I noticed about the campus during our initial visits as accepted, eager beaver high school seniors.
I then spent time in the bookstore- the cool place to go on your first Friday night in college. :) I of course bought another shirt and just sat by the escalators reading magazines. (No one ever buys those magazines.) Next up was dinner. I went to Walnut Hill College for the PwC sponsored etiquitte dinner, hosted by Wharton Women. It was three hours of hell, but the students at my table were freshman, and they kept it fun. We made faces at each other when, for example, the instructor showed her velcro encrusted plates and silverware that helped her show just how to place your knife and fork between bites as opposed to being completely done, for both American and Continental styles of dining of course. It was sort of like having your first class ever in college with a grad student for an instructor who called herself a professor and breast fed the whole hour and a half of class. (Yes, I can make the comparison because that was my first college class experience.) It brought back some amusing memories and made me happy that Penn still seemed to have happy but skeptical and sarcastic students, like me of course. :)
I then went out to New Deck's kareoke night with two 5th year friends who were great friends of mine during college. It was great just sitting around, having drinks, trading politically incorrect stories, and having cheese fries at midnight. It was just like old times; the scene, faces, and banter were all so familiar and comforting. We stayed at the bar til closing at the early hour of 2 AM. I wasn't quite drunk, but I walked back to my hotel room at the Inn at Penn, which is situated across the street from my senior year dorm and as "on campus" as you can get for a hotel (location-wise, of course, and not quality of the mattress, let's say- gotta love those 30 year old mattresses in Penn dorms).
The next morning, instead of taking a cab to the airport, I walked through campus one more time and took the train to the airport from the University City SEPTA stop. I took it all in one last time, especially since I didn't know when I'd be coming back. I rolled my suitcase across Locust Walk and along Houston Hall. Oddly, that was exactly how I first visited Penn on my own- walking from the train to Logan Hall along Houston. I made it to the University City train station, and as expected, the SEPTA train was 10 minutes late and the ticket machine ate two dollars before it started deducting the dollars I inserted from the amount I owed for the ticket. How appropriate.
My likely final trip to Penn for a while was, I think, the best one. The first one was a bit overwhelming. It was the first time back to campus. It also entailed seeing all my friends from various aspects of my Penn life at once, which was not how I hung out with friends in college. And it was soooo crowded with plenty of other nostalgic, old alumni. It just wasn't what I was looking for. The second one was just all business. I had barely any time to see anyone or anything. I felt as though I might as well have been recruiting at another nameless and unfamiliar college. This last trip, I felt, resembled what my life was like in college. I saw one friend for lunch, had "class" (or work at the dinner), and then went out with a couple more friends and ended the night barely buzzed and wreaking of smoke. (You can still smoke in Philly bars and restaurants.) I think this trip was my true closure. I came into it knowing not to expect things to be the same as before and that everyone had moved on. Yet I got to relive, just for a day, my college life while already leading the once uncertain life away from college and knowing that this one day was it. I feel lucky to have had this chance to satisfyingly and peacefully close the Penn chapter of my life and truly appreciate the new, wonderful life chapter that is writing itself as I write this blog.
posted by Christina at 8:38 AM
1 Comments:
aww, well, now you get to write the boston chapter! hooray!
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