going back...

generally i cringe at the thought of wearing orange and black (on non-halloween occasions, anyway), but i sucked it up last weekend and traveled back to that place in new jersey where reunions are a production like no other... despite bad cover bands and mediocre costumes, or 'outfits' in non-princeton speak (see photo), i actually had a great time!
so, as was to be expected there were lots of babies (apparently i am not following the schedule) and beer (but no babies drinking beer) and most of the people i ran into i was actually pretty happy to see and find out about what they are doing. of course there were also the people i'm in touch with regularly anyway, but who live in various corners of the country so just seeing their faces and being able to give them hugs was really nice... the only disappointment was that the weekend was so short and hectic that quality time with people was hard to come by.

i was reminded that by a very smart friend that even though i'm not a rah-rah school spirit kind of person and it did take me a while to find my niche in college (nerding it out in the e-quad, singing a cappella under 1879 arch, "studying" on nice days on a blanket in the junior slums, dancing the night away at terrace - wow maybe i'm more nostalgic than i thought...), once i found that sweet spot, it was amazing - partly due to the place, but mostly thanks to the people and my outlook on life at the time.

i don't buy the idea that college was/will always be the best time of my life - there have been many moments since then that have rivaled that feeling of freedom, comfort, intellectual curiosity, joy of discovery, and inspiration. and as much as i feel like i'm still 22 and i look at my friends and they don't seem to have changed drastically in 10 (yikes yes, 10 years!!), there is still definitely something unique about that place, time, and age that is impossible to re-create. this left me with somewhat of a melancholy feeling at the end of theweekend, but on the flip side it gave me a mental kick in the ass to make sure that i'm paying attention to what the heck is going on around me *right now* without dwelling too much on the past or projecting into the future.

i also realized (for the umteenth time in the past few months) that if i were on facebook i probably wouldn't feel as out of the loop about what's going on with people as i do, but for some reason i'm still holding out. am i shooting myself in the foot here?