Reunions

I had a college reunion of sorts a couple of weeks ago.  A bunch of guys that lived in Reese Hall on UT’s campus in the early 70’s got together for a couple of days of food and fellowship.

You can do the math—that was roughly 50 years ago. Goodness gracious, I don’t even think that I should be 50 years old, much less 50 years from early college days.

It all started when one of my buddies lost his wife. Leesa was really one of the old Reese Hall gang, and everyone’s favorite. Unfortunately, she got Glioblastoma and died shortly after diagnosis, almost two years ago. At her funeral, a group of us decided a reunion was long overdue.

I’ve never been one much for reunions. High school reunions don’t interest me although I did join a small group of high school classmates last month for dinner back in my hometown. It was nice.

I guess part of it is that I’m not the same person I was back then. In high school, I was interested only in football and one girl. My best friend about as far back as I can remember was Ronnie McNabb and we’ve stayed close to this day.

In a culture that didn’t seem to favor higher education, I left and went off to college. And I guess I never looked back. I made friends with the most diverse bunch of people you can imagine.

Polish, Jewish, Irish, Californian, Yankee. Straight, gay, hippies, ROTC guys.  Long hair, short hair, every color imaginable. Worked for the first Pakistani I ever met. Wrestled with Freddie from Iraq. Met professors who didn’t care if you were there or not and professors that might call you if you missed class.

People from all around the globe. People with very different ideas about the world than I had, growing up in a tiny, rural town in East Tennessee.

Don’t get me wrong—I love where I grew up and loved the people. But I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I had never left.

We’ve got a lot of kids that are about to head out to college and careers, maybe the military. I would tell them all to not be afraid. Embrace the change. See the world. And keep an open mind about everything you encounter.

But keep what you picked up while you were here.

From your teachers, take the ability to learn. If a subject seems a waste of time to you, that’s OK. In learning something that you don’t like, you learn how to learn. Believe me—that will come in handy one day.

From your parents, take your character with you. Maybe you didn’t grow up in the best of circumstances. Maybe family life was hard. That’s OK. You can learn from that too. Hopefully, your parents were great role models, showing you what integrity is all about. Maybe they weren’t, and you learned how you didn’t want to be.

Learn from your coaches how to compete. And work as a team. You will be competing the rest of your life. Competing for a great job. Competing to be the best you can be. Sometimes competing just to survive. And, at some time, you will be part of a team. Maybe that team is your family. You have to learn how to work together as a family too.

It won’t be easy. You have a lot more to learn. But you are well equipped to take on the world, to live your dreams.