College the First Time Around

When I went off to college right fresh from high school, I don’t know what I expected. Oh, I suppose I had some kind of plan that included a degree, but I certainly didn’t know what type it was. The only occupation I had ever aspired to was that of wife and mother. So I guess it was inevitable that I ended up getting bogged down in the social life found on all college campuses.

The first experience occurred soon after I arrived – the sorority scene. I jumped right in and joined what I thought was the best on campus (still think so) and made many new friends. These girls for the most part were interested in academics, but they were also into all kinds of social activities (they were the super moms of the future). I liked all of the latter action and shunned the former.

I did “make my grades” the first semester and was initiated into the group, but it went pretty much downhill from there. I don’t want to give the impression that I made all D’s and F’s; that was definitely not the case. I simply got interested in the classes I liked (history and Spanish) and those I didn’t, I just didn’t study for or I cut a lot of those classes.

So what did I do with my time? Well, I became a pretty good bridge player, always able to pick up a game in the student center. And I honed up my flirting skills. (I must have done a pretty good job of this because whenever I walked into the student center, a certain football player would start singing “Hummingbird, Hummingbird should be her name.”) And he was right, I was very fickle, having several “serious relationships” each lasting a few weeks.

During my sophomore year, I began to really tire of this type of life and was pretty sure that this was not the college for me. So I convinced my parents to allow me to pack up and come home after the first semester. That spring I “ran into” the genius at a Vandy fraternity affair and the rest is history.

A year later we were married and my “wife and mother” career began. And what a fascinating ride it has been!