Fifteen years ago I graduated from college. I happened on Fairfield University completely by accident, but the moment I stepped on campus, I just knew. I knew it in my bones that Fairfield was where I needed to go. I had an amazing four years there. I met some wonderful people and made friends for life. This June was my fifteen year reunion. There were some notable absences (Mary & Erin you were missed!!!), but it was fun weekend and it was so easy to slip into conversation with the people I went to school with. Campus has changed a bit since I graduated, but it is still one of the prettiest campuses I have ever seen, and you all know that I have seen many many college campuses.
It was a jam-packed trip home that weekend. I flew into Boston on Thursday and took the train down to Providence. That night my sister and I had dinner with my best friend, Michaela. We're all June babies, so we went out to celebrate - sans kids. Adult beverages were consumed and we had a great time. Friday I took off for Fairfield. I was excited for reunion, but I also had some other people I wanted to meet. Going back to my NEACURH days, I met a young man named Will Johnson my sophomore year of college. He was a student at Northeastern and the president of their Resident Student Association. I met him through Kyle, who was the NEACURH director at the time. Now I'm a tall girl, and Will has about a good 6 inches or more on me. I remember after I won the bid to become National Chairperson. I hadn't told anyone. It wasn't public knowledge yet. We were at UW LaCrosse and I saw him and the other Northeastern folks moving into their building for the conference. I ran over to him to give him a hug and whispered that I'd won. No word of a lie, he picked me up off the ground. Nine years ago he started working at Fairfield so I've had the chance to check in with him from time to time. It's always good to visit with him. I can't believe we've come as far as we have. So crazy!
After my visit with Will, I had lunch with Kathy. Kathy is the mom of Bob and Lauren. When I baby sat them, Bob was 4 and Lauren was 3. Lauren just graduated from high school. Sigh. It was so great to catch up with her. Kathy and I have corresponded through facebook but I hadn't seen her in 15 years. Then it was on to the reunion. We had a class event on Friday night and then a great family day outside on Saturday. I got a little sun, of course. They had food trucks and ice cream and music. It was a nice way to spend the day. I drove back to Rhode Island that evening because Sunday was shaping up to be a busy day. Breakfast with the cousins, a visit to my dad's, lunch at mom's, dinner with friends, and then finally sleep. For the first time on my vacation, I was able to sleep in Monday morning. It was a nice, lazy day.
The highlight of which was surprising this girl when I tagged along with grandma to pick her up from day care:
Tuesday was a travel day and praise the travel gods that Jet Blue was able to do a same day change and I was able to change my flight from the 7:30pm to the 1:40pm. I was not enamored with the idea of landing back in DFW at 10:45pm and then getting up for work the next day at 5:30am. Getting in at 5pm meant I had time to get settled and go to the grocery store before going to bed. When I landed in DFW at 5pm, I got a notification that the flight I was originally supposed to take was not going to leave until 9:30pm. That flight didn't end up getting in until after 1am! Dodged a bullet on that one. It was an action packed vacation, but a fantastic one nonetheless. I was reminded how much charm Fairfield has. I always love visiting. I need to get back more (Megan, I promise it won't be 10 years before I see you again). No more travel for awhile, not until October when I head to Hawaii...
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