Far Above Cayuga's Waters

This evening, my college friend, grad-school friend, colleague friend and just plain friend, Shahana S. and I went to a Cornell University Glee Club concert. The Glee Club is doing a tour of California and tonight was their kickoff concert in Berkeley. But I think all of us were there to hear the Cornell songs. The Football Song was great and The Evening Song brought back to me a flood of memories. But as everyone in the audience stood to sing the Alma Mater, I couldn't help but realize that I was welling up.

I can now understand why old men cry at the thought of their college years. It's because THEY ARE GONE. I will never live those years of my life ever again, and that truly is sad. I think back about all the stupid things I worried about, like tests and looking good in front of my professors. Those weren't the important things, well in some ways they were, but it was the amazing experiences I had, the people I met and those friends who I still maintain friendships with today. I look at the email address book I have and there are names of Cornellians sprinkled all through there.

I sat there during the concert with all these nuggets of wisdom and clarity fly through my mind. But most importantly, how valuable the experience was. Cornell, although with its faults, was the place where I grew up. I became an independent person and some of the decisions I made there are consistent with who I am now. For example, majoring in Geology, was NOT in the cards as played by Mom and Dad, but I went down that path and loved it. Following what was true for me was an experiment I first dabbled in at Cornell and has now become an integral part of me.

I won't bore you all with the other things, but I now understand why so many parents find it so important that their sons or daughters go to their alma maters. I used to think it was all about the prestige of a child going to that school. But instead it is that the parent wants their child to live that same wonderful experience. If and when I have kids, I would want them to experience Cornell and have for it the fondness for that institution far above Cayuga's waters.