Back in the day

What seems like a million years ago, I was a first-year student at scenic Macalester College in St. Paul. I was a young, skinny, poetry-writing, guitar playing maniac who was out on his own and loving it. I had a girlfriend, I had a car, and I had a plethora of new friends who lived all around me.

I remember that first week in the dorms. One night, it rained like hell, so a bunch of us went outside and slid in the mud in the quad. I still don't think the lawn has recovered from that night, and if I recall correctly, the washing machines had to be replaced after we cleaned up. Another night I drank most of a bottle of tequila and kept falling out of bed, drunk off my ass. Eventually, one of my neighbors put all the chairs in my room against my bed so I'd stay in. Of course, I didn't.

I had this great class my first semester, popularly known as Physics for Poets, taught by Professor Kim. It was one of my all-time favorite classes. It was almost like discussing Star Trek and getting a grade for it. There was almost no math in the class, but lots of lectures about theoretical concepts and the like. The class was a blast, but that wasn't the real reason that it is the only class in my college history that I attended every single session of. Professor Kim would take your attendance percentage and replace your lowest test score with it. So, if you bombed a test, but showed up to every class, well, that C or D became an A.

Not that I bombed a test, although I did blow one off, and only got a C+, so the fact that my friend A come down to my room every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning to drag me (sometimes literally) to class, I cruised through to an A and had fun with the class. I'm sure it didn't help that he lived in the same neighborhood, and personally knew my High School Chemistry teacher as well.

Yesterday, dear friend and Mac alum Henry posted a link to a copy of our campus directory, but from 1972. I have to admit that it's really, really cool to check out my old professors as they were 20 years before I was their student. Especially the picture of one of my favorite professors, Sung K. Kim. Later, if I remember to do it, I will try to get pictures scanned of myself in our directory, and maybe, if I'm really lucky, I can find a couple shots of the skinny, long-haired, poetry-writing, guitar playing maniac I once was.