Monday

Twenty-nine years ago, this Monday (selected since it is the first day of the school year now at Iowa State), I started college.  Of course, back then the first day was mid-week and move-in was on a Sunday with two days scheduled to buy books, register or fix schedules.  My goodness, I was a 'hot mess' back then, though with good reason.

If you are reading this, you already know me in all likelihood--but there's some trivia you likely don't know.  Did you know I never graduated high school?  It's true.  I left a year early and the headmaster was a bit...no, not a bit--he was a 100% tool, so that he blocked me from going to MIT, but couldn't stop Iowa State--my parents got involved and most bureaucrats have a fear of private sector lawyers, but I digress...

As a 'compromise', I was told I could go to State, but that I'd need to finish a list of graduation requirements they would create just for me.  Of course, Iowa State didn't care...once I was on campus, paid my bills, and wasn't flunking out, they didn't give a crap about my high school stuff.  And once State was good with me, I didn't really care about graduating high school, so I never did take the classes I was supposed to.

Yup, a BA and two master's degrees--and no diploma.  Bet you won't find anyone else in America who can say that.

But now--my son starts his junior year there.  Junior year was awesome for me--Foster House president, brother floor to Henderson, and with a great cabinet to run things-_Dave, Mikey, Arnel/Trent, Ron/Chris...quite possibly the best start-to-finish year of my life, really.  I want him to have the same luck I did--not just in the classroom, but my growth as a person.  That's the greatest thing Iowa State gave me--it sounds cheesy, but it gave me most of the things valuable in life--a tolerance/respect for differences whether of opinion or culture, the ability to ask "Why?", to continue learning about any and everything.   It's the year I found that I liked literature, first thought of writing stories (Robert Boston's fiction class), that The Great Gatsby truly is a masterpiece.  It was the year of VEISHEA in Chicago with Paul, Brian, and Jeff watching the Cubs take two of three from the Giants...Jamie Moyer on the mound for a 1-0 loss to Rick Reuschel on a Jose Uribe homer....ahhh.

Is there a point to most of this?  Nah.  Just love for my son and alma mater, the best university in AMerica.