Well, I was about 14 years older than most of my classmates when I started college, because I was attending for the first time after eight years in the Air Force. So my pals were all about 18, I was 32. They were coming out of high school, had been living with mom and dad, and had usually experienced nothing more stressful than breaking up with a boy/girlfriend. I was living on my own, both my parents were deceased, I had been shot at a time or two, and I had seen some of my friends die.
So, we were coming at the experience from drastically different viewpoints; but we all got along pretty good. I ended up being a campus guru of sorts; the “favorite uncle” of a lot of my pals. (I also dated quite a bit—and when you’re 33 and dating 19-year old girls, it’s a rush.
) I also never lived in a dorm, so that was a plus. I’d spent eight years living in barracks, and that was enough, thanks.
I attended the first two years on grants and scholarships; and I made the Dean’s list three semesters out of four. Being older and having been in situations like live combat focused me a lot more than some of my pals----I wasn’t there to drink beer, or party, or join a fraternity (the behavior of the frat boys almost convinced me on more than one occasion that there was no possible way that Darwin could have been wrong), or even to chase girls, although as I said, I did date quite a bit, especially after I acquired a steady girlfriend. I was there to get an education, and that was my primary focus.
It paid off, too----I graduated with a 4.0 in my major and a 3.8 overall, with a membership in an academic honors society, a few more times on the Dean’s list, and at least one scholarship awarded because of academic excellence.
I had good times and bad times in college; my sophomore year was probably one of the best years of my life. I had a gang of great friends that I saw every day, a pretty little girlfriend that I was quite attached to, and I was doing wonderfully well in all my classes. I liked my profs, and I liked my school.
The downside was that I was sick quite a lot that winter----one cold right after another, and my junior and senior years weren’t as good; I still did great in my classes, but I had transferred to a state university, and the atmosphere was totally different. My girlfriend had gone on to a different school, and I didn’t know half as many people there. I also acquired a different girlfriend, who turned out to be a severely dependant, unbelievably dysfunctional, manipulative, psychotic leech. The 10 months that I was involved with her were not the best I have ever spent. I thank God every day that I did not end up marrying that girl. (It’s still a wonder to me how I managed to keep my grades on a consistantly high level during that period.)
Anyway, I enjoyed my college years for the most part; but if I had to do it all over again, I would have done it differently. For one thing, instead of going into the Air Force as a combat engineer, I would have gone in as a security forces specialist (what the Army calls military police), and I would probably
still be in the Air Force. Things got very different after the end of the Cold War, but I would have carried a lot of bennies with me, being grandfathered in.
Ah, well. We all look back after 40 and wish we’d done things differently.
mostly trying to pick a major. Since my classes were so “scattered”, I ended up with an Associates of Arts degree in General Education. Those were also the years I drifted away from the faith mainly by listening to the lies of the secular culture around me instead of sticking with the teachings of the church. My maternal grandfather also died during those years so overall they were very painful.
