One of the (too many) activities our family scheduled for this summer's home leave was a continued college exploration for my eldest son, starting his senior year in high school next fall. While I was not present at each of these, this summer's campus visits included California Institute of Technology, Harvey Mudd College, Oregon State University, and Cal Poly Pomona; last summer included University of Oregon; recent previous visits have included my own (University of the Pacific) and my wife's (UC Santa Barbara) alma maters.
With each campus tour, I was struck with a strong wave of nostalgia. Man, were my college years a great time. I'm not saying I don't love my life now. Having a bit of maturity (some from the peanut gallery may beg to differ, but nonetheless), a bit of a savings account, a wonderful family, a rewarding career, etc., and blah blah blah...is all good, mind you.
However: did I mention what a great time my college years were? I love to study and to learn, and to have that be your full time job and responsibility, how good is that! And the recreational activities to boot. We won't go into details here, but I do remember having a lot of fun, in a lot of ways.
We were adults, pretty much, legal, unsupervised (reference my recent "home alone" post for my position on THAT), footloose, fancy free, and a whole lot of other cliches to boot.
So, I keep going back to school, first for a masters, and now a doctorate. But mark my words. It is not the same. The undergrad experience is a unique, wonderful, and very special time of life, and you will never get it back. Sure, there are different, still special, and again wonderful times to come--but never again will you "have it all in front of you...."
Ah, youth is wasted on the young, as Shaw said. Son, pay attention: relish these, your salad days. See if you can get your head around is paradox: it doesn't get any better than that...and, afterward, it gets even better.
