“I’m now one of those old fossils on the campus now…”
It’s official… I’m a college senior now. Frightening. Aside from fifth-year seniors, the class that started at JMU in the fall of 1999 is now today’s senior class. For the most part, those of us who are seniors are now interested in finishing up our classes, fulfilling all of the degree requirements, having a job waiting on us after leaving college, and getting the heck out of here, but enjoying all of the college life in the meantime. Seniors have been there, done that, and gotten the T-shirt in many things. I’m actually the third-oldest person in Potomac Hall this year, and one of only three people living in Potomac Hall that is 21 or older right now. Makes it very easy to enforce the alcohol policy that way (I know who the other two people are who can legally drink), but still, it’s kind of strange. I was always one of the younger people all through school, and then in McGraw-Long Hall freshman year and Potomac Hall sophomore year (not counting the freshman side), my birthday fell in the summer, following the academic year (JMU generally gets out first week in May, and my birthday is May 30), so I was one of the “younguns” in the dorm, but by far not the youngest. Junior year in Potomac Hall, I was up there being one of only a handful of juniors in the hall, but now I am officially a fossil. I’m the only person in the building who remembers JMU President Linwood Rose’s inauguration, and I know where practically everything is on campus, and I know a lot of the history of JMU. It makes me a great resource for others, but I really felt old on freshman move-in day, when I realized that these people moving into the freshman side of Potomac are only a year older than my sister. So it was kind of shocking to think about that as college students go, I’m old. It’s not saddening (I’m having a great time!), but I was taken back a little by the realization. Wow…
Date posted: August 27, 2002