May 6, 2002

Mellowing With Age

Well, I'm back from the reunion. It was a lot more fun than I had imagined. Attendance was not too shabby: 43 out of about 140 graduating seniors, or around 30%.

Some of the highlights:

• Rooming with Russ
• Seeing Tom Donnelly in action once again, teaching Quantum seminar
• Sanam Lang with Katy, Sonia, Brian C., Steve, Dave, ...
• Media Studio
• Brunching with Eric, Susan, Jessica, and Ashley (ok, so they have nothing to do with Mudd...)
• "Cutting class" to go see Spider-Man with Derrick, Dinesh, Brad, Brian G., Beavis, Matt...
• Dave's cheerful recitation of his job woes in Kansas
• Brian G.'s proposal of marriage to Sherry and/or Holly
• Learning that Hal Van Ryswyk is "Five foot fifteen inches" tall, and that Art Benjamin's five-year-old daughter "is like, doing closed-form integrals at this point."
• Beers with April, Seth, Kristine, Kristine's husband who I cannot possibly remember the name of even though he seemed awfully nice and told several funny jokes... and many others...

The first thing that struck me was that nobody had changed much at all, physically. Same clothes, hair, body shape. Nobody had gotten fat or gone bald. Craig Meyer actually got thinner, Lord knows how.

The second thing that struck me was that everyone had really changed a lot, psychologically. Most of the people I spoke with seemed to be really comfortable in their own skins. The people who used to be painfully shy had learned to speak in public. The people who used to be... well, a bit off the deep end... had learned to harness their manic energy for Good, not Evil.

So I came away feeling really, really happy for everyone. Some people were still on the fast track. Some people were unemployed and loving it. Everyone was very, very cool. Not everyone had found their niche in life yet... but everyone seemed to be OK.

Either that, or anti-psychotics and anti-depressants have come a long way in the last five years.