College, Chapter 1
#2 of An Alternate Path
A day I long looked forward to was here, and I felt a mix of excitement and fear. I eagerly looked forward to my college studies, but sadness at leaving home combined with - I'll freely admit - fear of possible future experiences tempered that excitement. The weather did not match my mood, however. It was cool and overcast. The roads of my hometown were wet from an overnight rain, and more rain was forecast for the cities I'd be traveling through. I was already packed; I lugged my three large suitcases from bedroom to car, my dad helping with the largest and heaviest.
Scarcely two months before, I had walked across a stage with my high school classmates, accepting our diplomas. We'd partied for weeks after, while I had also indulged in my hobby, which I hoped would soon be my college major. With my brother already off at his college, my parents faced an empty nest once I was gone; but the bravely climbed into the family car for a five hour drive through the Catskill and Allegheny mountain ranges, from Rome, NY to State College, PA.
Amazingly, given the generally crappy weather I remembered from growing up, Rome's weather was not the worst we encountered that day. Around Binghamton, drizzle and fog greeted us, and remained a traveling companion all the way to my dorm. Once there, navigating the press of cars and arriving families took quite a while. Soon enough though, less than an hour after we arrived, I had my room key, college tee shirt and welcome packet, while my father complained about the press of traffic. Mom, dad and I wrestled my bags up the elevators eventually and found our way to my room.
We found the door from the hallway to the suite's common room open, but peeking in, saw no one. We got all my luggage into the common room before my first roommate appeared from the restroom. "Chuck," he said, holding out his paw.
"Hi. I'm George," I said, shaking paws. "Nice to meet you."
"A37, right?" Chuck asked, and I looked a bit confused, glancing at my paperwork.
"Yep. A37."
Chuck relaxed a bit, "Half an hour ago, some zebra showed up, moved almost all his stuff in before he realized he's in A39. Dumb jock type," he joked.
I laughed softly, "Well, hopefully not too dense?" I glanced around as mom walked into the room with my bedding on a cart. "So, you have that room?" I asked, pointing to one of the bedrooms. Chuck nodded and I glanced at the other two bedrooms before selecting one based on its view. The suite itself occupied a portion of Hastings Hall's top floor and gave a nice view of Beaver Stadium, something that could be nice on game days, except my work-study involved documenting football games and practices.
The bedrooms themselves were decorated in rather boring beige, a bed and dresser on one wall with a bookcase and desk on the other wall, a window giving a view of the outside world, but otherwise sealed shut. Only posters and whatever could be stuck to the provided corkboards could customize the room. Our private common room held two small sofas and three modestly comfortable chairs surrounding a TV. A microwave oven atop a small refrigerator gave us the option of cooking some simple meals and snacks in our room. Like the bedrooms, it was also decorated in boring beige.
A quick burst of activity brought all my stuff into the dorm, and my parents treated Chuck and I to some McDs before my parents left to finish their journey to Reading PA for an overnight stay with relatives before heading home. They dropped Chuck and I off before leaving, and the two of us took the stairs, the line for the elevator now being way too long. We smelled a new arrival long before we saw him. It wasn't an unpleasant odor, but it was distinct.
"If this is our roomie raising a stink about the bedrooms, I vote we let him have the one he wants," I joked. Chuck agreed.
"There you are," the skunk churred as we stepped in. "Mark Vincent," he said, coming out of the previously empty bedroom. At least there wasn't an argument over that.
"He's George; I'm Chuck," the lemur said.
"Didn't feel like unpacking all my stuff just
now," I yawned. It had already been quite a busy day for all of us."No problem," Mark grinned. "Just have it all out of the common room before classes start."
"See?" I turned to Chuck, "he is raising a stink about it!" We laughed as I moved my last boxes into my bedroom. The clock chimed two and I pulled on my Penn State windbreaker.
"Well, almost time for the Welcome Dinner," I note, "but I need to check in with Coach Paterno for my work study. See you in a bit." It was warm but drizzling as I crossed the campus to the practice field. There are some things money can't buy, but for everything else, there's financial aid, usually consisting of student loans, but grants, scholarships and work studies are also available. Majoring in film production, I hoped, at least this work study had something to do with my career: videotaping practices and athletes' performances for the football program. As a bonus, it also got me field passes to all games. For the next several hours, I spent as much time running as the players did, trying to provide close coverage without getting tackled myself. In this, I was mostly successfully, but did have grass stains on my jeans and shirt as I returned to the dorm.
"Oh, hi," Mark said, blocking the door when I opened it. "Chuck and I were about to go to dinner. Would you like to join us?" he asked with a shy smile.
"Sure," I said, limping to my room. "Just give me a minute to change, please?" Shortly, we were heading across campus towards the welcome week dinner. Supposed to be for parents and students, my parents had already left. My dad is rather cheap, and did not want to spring for a hotel room. Mark, as I found out later, was from Montana, where his family owned a ranch. His parents had too many chores and did not make the trip themselves. Chuck's family lived in a small town, about 90 minutes away and they served as surrogate parents for Mark and me during the dinner, and the convocation that followed in the Bryce Jordan Center. In spite of being in different schools, we three sat together. And, as we'd be spending quite a bit of time together in somewhat close quarters, it did make me a bit nervous. I'll even admit to a bit of emotion when the university's chancellor turned to the president and said, "I present to you the class of 1989, with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities, thereunto appertaining."
I had a hard time focusing; I felt a mix of loneliness and happy anticipation as the day came to a close. Bidding my roommates good night, I settled in for sleep, although my state of nervous excitement did not permit much sleep. Feeling lonely and sad, I lay in bed for a bit yet trembled with excitement that precluded sleep. University was about to begin for me. A day I long hoped for was over. The next four years began today.