The One About Hogwarts...

I spent this last weekend at my college’s homecoming for my five-year reunion. Whoa… Five years have flown by since I accepted my diploma at the School of Economics’ graduation. It wasn’t the perfect tv/movie moment I envisioned based on Saved the Bell College edition and Legally Blonde. My name sounded garbled in the department chair’s heavy eastern European accent. Think he even added extra vowels and a couple of syllables… And my poor parents traveled over 4,000 miles only to watch me pushed to center stage (by a faculty member no less…) because I stood in the wings unsure if I were being recognized… Considering that I pulled one all-nighter a week finishing econ papers and problem sets, I should have taken the mic away and announced myself correctly after which the crowd erupted into cheers... Haha! Shoulda-Coulda-Woulda…
 
Reunion was slightly overwhelming. I was bombarded by a number of people asking the same question – what are you up to now? I started repeating the same six words in an almost rhythmic pattern – Salt Lake City. Three Years. Finance. Depending on how close we were in college, I would elaborate a little more but I was more interested in what others were doing. I found out that my fraternity brother cofounded Instagram – a photo sharing app I recently downloaded to my iphone. Another friend was part of a non-profit organization looking to construct more efficient water-wells in Kenya. I even met up with another classmate who is the current spokesperson for Bare Essentials (I’d actually seen the commercial randomly…). A number of other friends were in graduation school or settling down in their career or family. I was so inspired by how my classmates chose to live their lives.
 
Walking around campus and looking at the Richardsonian Romanesque architecture blended with elements reminiscent of Colonial Mission Revival (I was a dedicated tour guide, sue me….), I could not help but enjoy flashbacks from my undergraduate years: biking furiously through the quad as the toll of the bells signaled my tardiness, serenading a couple with my college a capella group before a heartfelt wedding proposal and hiding in the bushes behind Memorial Church as a fraternity pledge while our actives looked for us in a game of Hide and Go Sleep (yeah, it’s not hazing…). People say college is the best four years of your life. It certainly was a magical time for me. For four years, I was part of a world where anything (seriously, anything!) was possible. It was Hogwarts. And I, along with 1700 students, felt like Harry Potter in a four book wondrous series of fortunate events. ‘OOOOO-SIX!