Swarthmore College Class of ‘97 5-year Reunion
June 9th, 2002 | by Brian |Swarthmore College Reunion
Lesson: save! I just lost a nice blog, so I’ll be brief in retyping this.
Thoughts. Friday night was great. Hearing about what people have done since graduation is quite inspiring. Dave B., after quitting an engineering job, is building and designing furniture for a living, and is building a house for his mother, with the help of Eric S. Dave tells me the head of the Shelter Institute, where he took some courses, is a libertarian.
Sonia M. told me about her work in public health at Harvard, and about a site where you can asses your cancer risk.
Chris Muth (he’s changed his last name, but I can’t remember it) has the coolest job, as I see it. He works for the Metanexus Institute. He knows Andrew Newberg, author of Why God Won’t Go Away. He’s been to a conference honoring physicist John Wheeler, know for the “many worlds” theory of quantum mechanics. A non-testable theory, and sort of nutty, but Wheeler is famous. He’s also read grant proposals by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who is quite cool.
Other thoughts:
Some of the much older alumnni had pictures of their younger selves on their name tags. It’s good that they’ve lived so long, but the thought of losing my youth urks me. Perhaps advances in genetic engineering will prevent aging in my lifetime? Then we’d have to colonize other planets or something to fit all the people. Yet, the Pacific Ocean is huge, so might it be easier to just build new land masses out there? Oddly, a short Google search has yielded nothing, while planet colonization gets many hits.
In any case, maybe these old people are really young inside. Surely they are. So I should get to the gym, get strong bones, and do what I can to remain agile. The reunion reminded me of how little I interact with older people.
So what’s the point of the reunion? Not to re-live college, Andrew B. pointed out. Of course. I guess just to see what people who were an important part of my life at one time are up to. Is it just for the moment? I mean, I got home, and was sitting in “my room” in Elkins Park, and thought “Am I better off now that I went?” Well, I’m glad I went, but for the in the moment enjoyment of it…that, of course, does not jeopardize future enjoyment. Any regrets from Swarthmore? Too many hours in Cornell Library? Perhaps. So what does this tell me? Do what I like to do, and live so I have no regrets. I knew that.
I must add the the weather was spectacular. Not the typical hot & humid Philadelphia day. Not too hot, not sticky, sleeping on the third floor of Parrish was fine, even with the shade covering the window.
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