It’s That Time Again

Today was Oglethorpe’s graduation ceremony, and the three-year mark since I walked across that stage.

This time of year always makes me nostalgic; I wonder if distance will cure that, or if I will always feel those emotions.  I don’t mind; it was a good time, a perfect day.

I knew some of these new Ogle-alums when they were freshmen.  I had class with some of them; some of them were on the paper with me.  And now that they’re gone it marks the end of the familiar.  I know no one there, now, when it used to be I knew 95% of the people walking around on that campus.  But we’re all gone now, spread out across the world and making a life.  We can’t go back, no matter how amazing college was for us all.  And no matter how bittersweet that knowledge seems, I know it’s right.  I know that’s how this thing works.  And I’m ok with that.

Three years haven’t taken me far, but it’s taken me to a place in which I’m happy.  I hope, in three years time, these newly graduated Petrels can look back and feel the same way.

Nescit Cedere – Congratulations, Oglethorpe graduates.  You’re going to do great things.

Nescit Cedere

I remember my first Oglethorpe Day, long ago in 2007.  It was literally freezing that day – about 30 degrees and snow flurries.  Dear Deborah was wearing flip-flops; I was a few days away from my first musical performance.  Everything was different then.

Nevertheless, Oglethorpe Day is ripe with tradition.  A bagpiper dressed in traditional garb?  Yes.  The annual Petrels of Fire race around the quad?  Check.  A stellar speaker instead of afternoon classes?  You bet.  A way for all Petrels, past and present, to show their Oglethorpe love and pride?  Yes, that is the most important.  I will be wearing my black and gold today, in support of my beloved alma mater.

Nescit Cedere, fellow Petrels.

Anniversaries

It was ten years ago today that I had my very first guitar lesson.  I think it quite literally changed my life.  I was a little 15-year-old girl, naive in the most ways, just wanting to play a song and maybe write some, too.  That decision set me on the road I’m on now; I would be a different person if I hadn’t picked up that instrument.  I was known through college as the girl with the guitar, even by people I didn’t know.  My guitar helped me find friends that I otherwise wouldn’t have had, and it helped me have experiences that shaped me.  There’s no high like performing your own music onstage in front of people who are into it.  No high at all.  So, happy anniversary, dear Alvarez.  Though I’ve bought many since you, you’re still my 10-year favorite.  <3

In other news, today was the 75th anniversary of the Gone with the Wind publication.  I love Margaret Mitchell; I’ve read most of her newspaper articles, and though she was made to write about slightly boring things because of her gender, she lit her subjects on fire.  I am proud to call her my Atlanta sister -  I am firmly convinced we loved this city the same way.  And here’s to hoping one day I will find my voice long enough to write something even half as brilliant.