College, 20 years later

One of my college classmates pointed out that today is the 20th anniversary of our graduation from Ashland University. That's honestly harder to wrap my head around than my age or any other arbitrary number measuring life.

My college experience was a mixed bag, for sure. I'm definitely better off for it. I wish the academics would have been stronger for the radio/TV major, but I think doing a double and picking up journalism helped make up for that. My grades might have been mediocre, but I finished a double major in four years and still had to pad my senior year with bowling and volleyball officiating.

It's funny to think about how each year was so different. My first year I spent a lot of time trying to figure out where I belonged, which led to an obscene number of hours on the radio at times that no one else wanted (read: Saturday nights). Then on weekends I would try to pull together TV shows, often recruiting volunteers from outside of the department because of that damn suitcase college problem. I even minored in theater for that year. And of course, I had a crush on the girl upstairs who just wanted to be friends.

My sophomore year was a total train wreck, and I remember now how miserable I was. I was an RA in a dorm I did not care for, with a hall director who was the wrong kind of "Christian." My crush quit school, and I moped around over that instead of moving on. I hated my classes (especially French), and I was being pushed around a lot by the two instructors who saw themselves more as station managers than teachers.

Things started to change a bit my junior year. I was an RA again, but had an awesome room that made up for the homophobic and racist rednecks on my floor. I became very good friends with a woman who would end up being my roommate the next year. I was making some minor progress at getting the instructors to loosen the reigns and let students actually do stuff. I didn't date anyone seriously, but I had a series of interesting encounters. When my advisor left mid-year for something better, it opened my eyes to the idea that you have to make your future. By the end of that year, I got a part-time gig in commercial radio, resigned from my student position, and started writing opinion columns for the student newspaper.

By the time my senior year rolled around, it felt like a formality. Residence Life wouldn't give me an assistant hall director position, so not content to be an RA a third year, I broke off campus and shared a house with that friend and one of her friends (who turned out to be a total freakshow, but fortunately wasn't around much). I had the chance to do a ton of "real" radio, working for a PD that really knew his shit. I spent a lot less time in R/TV, but committed to the double major. I started dating the first woman I met that year (and ended up marrying her), and branched out into new social circles a great deal. While I kind of felt bad about my reduced R/TV involvement, I felt better about trying new things.

Those four years seemed to go by so slowly, especially when I compare to how quickly my kid turned 5. I loved the energy of living on campus, even one where people disappeared on weekends. I probably should have looked at more schools (AU was the only one I even applied to), but I was drawn in by the shiny toys they had for the major. The density of self-learning, and sometimes self-loathing, was very high in those years, more than any other time in my life.

I've been back to AU a few times, now and then, and one of my classmates is now a professor in the very department (or its evolved offspring) that we got our start in. The last time, in 2012, it was just completely weird to be there with Simon and Diana. In 2009, just before we moved to Seattle, I did a couple of radio shifts on WRDL, and had a total blast.

Despite being a schmuck my sophomore year, I wouldn't change the rest. I didn't have it all figured out by graduation (though I thought I did), but it set a good foundation for the learning that continues to this day.