Flashback Friday: College

When I was in high school I heard from adults on numerous occasions that one of the advantages of going to college alone (attending a school where you didn't know anyone) was the opportunity to "reinvent" yourself. I always thought this was kind of an odd way to look at college; I mean, if you didn't like yourself as a high schooler and wanted to make a change, why wouldn't you just go ahead and do it instead of waiting for college?

As time went by I came to realize that "reinventing" yourself in college had less to do with changing who you actually WERE in high school and more to do with having an opportunity to start fresh in a new place, with new people, and with no head-gear-wearing history holding you back. Basically, just because I was a dork in middle school and a semi-dork in high school didn't mean I had to be a dork in college. These new people would know only what I told them about my past, and that thought was freeing.  Until of course I realized - a little too late - that I was and continue to be an over-sharer.

I envisioned college starting off differently than it actually did, with me crying like child when my parents left me in the parking lot outside my dorm. But after a few months, I settled in, and after a few more months, I found the larger group of people who became my now life-long friends.

My college experience - all five years of it :) - was a great one. I'd love to go back and live that life for even just one more day, but since I can't, I'll take a walk down memory lane here with you.

Drinks at Pat O'Brien's in New Orleans.  (Tom's on
the farright and I'm next to him.)

Leslie, Beth, and me at one of the many parties we hosted
at "Bloomington" (our falling down house with no air conditioning
and rotten heat and an outside wall that had literally fallen off the
house but with a fabulous porch and in the best location in town).

Arriving in Cocoa Beach, FL.  I think it's safe to say
we'd gone a little crazy after driving for so long.
(I'm the 3rd from the left in the front row.)

Leslie and me at camp (we were counselors)
in upstate New York.  We were on the green
team, in case you couldn't tell.

Remember how you wore your pajamas everywhere
in college?  (Or was that just me? )  Beth and I are rocking
our matching (and not terribly flattering) pajama
pants in a church in North Carolina.

Shopping in the Disneyland gift shop in CA.
(I'm Minnie Mouse and Tom is Goofy.)

Sara and me.  This may have been taken on the day
she graduated from college, and if that's the case I
guess I wasn't technically in college when the picture
was taken.  I like it though, so I'm leaving it in.

"Midnight Cowgirl", "Born to be a Cowgirl", and "Buck Wild"
in a line dancing bar in San Antonio, TX.
Maybe I was meant to live in Texas all along!

On our way to the top of a mountain in Montana on Tom's 21st birthday.

Leslie and me in downtown Park City, UT
(one of the most gorgeous towns I've ever set foot in).

Though I'm not in this picture, Tom is (2nd from the right) and
he's doing a great job of expressing just how excited we were
when we ate our very first Whataburger back in 2001.

Studio 54 on the Las Vegas strip.
(I'm in the middle.)

Leslie and me celebrating NYE in the
Galt House Hotel in Louisville, KY.

Carrie, Beth, Leslie, and me at an Iowa Hawkeye tailgate.

My and Melanie's reflections in the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.
This is one of my all-time favorite pictures.

Waiting for our tickets to the Late Show with David Letterman
in New York City.  I have absolutely no idea who was on the
program that night, so they must not have been very famous.

Sara and me outside Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans.

I was lucky to have had the opportunity to travel a great deal in college, and most of the photos I kept were from those trips.  I have wonderful memories of experiences that didn't involve travel, but kept far fewer pictures from those.  I love that my children will always have access to digital photography! 

Stay tuned next week, when we flashback to...Tom!  Get ready for some FABULOUS photos of Taco Tom as you've never seen him before.  (Family-friendly pictures only, of course. :))