Nostalgia

Posted: 04 Jun 2008

I have a problem with nostalgia, and am struck by attacks of nostalgia more frequently than most. My only thought for the day is a walk down memory lane to my very first night of college.

On the first night of orientation, a lot of kids from my dorm (Taliaferro) went outside to play frisbee in the Sunken Gardens around midnight. Due to my apparent inability to throw a frisbee without injuring someone closeby, I soon sat out to watch the game and cheer. I looked up, and the sky above the Sunken Gardens was strewn with the widest, most unobstructed expanse of stars I’d seen in a long time. As I sat there, a shooting star rocketed across the sky. As unbelievable as it might sound, I had never seen a shooting star before my first night at college, and I knew it was a sign that I was in the right place.

I ran up to my roommate on the field and pointed up. “DID YOU SEE THAT?! A SHOOTING STAR!”  Then some guy I had never met walked up next to me and wheezed, “Actually, a meteor shower for tonight has been predicted for months. That’s probably what you saw.”

In retrospect, I look back on this incident as a metaphor for my experience at William and Mary–me looking at the world in awe and wonderment, and other people explaining to me why I’m an idiot.

I’m being (mostly) facetious. It is also a reminder of the wonderful function W&M serves for so many–allowing people to understand the beauty of the world around them as fully as possible.

But seriously, that kid was a killjoy.