Friday, August 24, 2007

I'm Glad I'm Here

8-23-2007

Day two was a whole lot better than day one; that’s for sure. I woke up for morning Mass and then said goodbye to David as he took off for school in Florida. He ran across three people that he knew from Totus Tuus after Mass, which left me feeling like a loser. I go to school here and he knew as many people as I did this morning.

That would change as soon as orientation started for me. I had to sign in on campus at 1:30PM and parking was almost impossible to find. All of the freshman and their families were working on moving them in and over 100 current students were working on helping people out so campus was full of people. Once I finally found parking way out in the boonies I started making my way towards where I was supposed to check in. I was surprised to find that there is a Graduate and Non Traditional Undergrad (GNT) group on campus and they were right there to give me information about themselves while I was receiving my orientation materials.

They have been doing a great job of reaching out to people and making it easy for us GNTs to get connected. They have an area set up at all of the meals and events so that we can get sit together. Dinner was the first event and I made it up there and sat down next to a girl I didn’t know. The heat index reached 104 degrees today and our seats just happened to be right by a window that the sun was shining through and I had just walked across campus before sitting down to eat and I had a dark shirt on. I was feeling okay until I sat down to eat, and then I started dripping sweat.

Not the best first impression, but a great lesson in humility.

One of the leaders of the group, Mary, broke the ice by commenting on how hot it was by the windows. She was trying to make me feel better, but I felt like it drew more attention to me. Either way, it did allow me to get involved in the conversation and I was able to meet the girl next to me. No one mentioned her name to me and I didn’t ask because I felt like I should know it since everyone else did. I talked to Mary, the nameless girl, and a girl named Kathleen while I ate and wiped the sweat off my forehead.

We finished dinner around 6:00, which left 90 minutes to kill before the ‘Grand Opening’ event that evening. Mary and Kathleen headed off to do some administrative tasks, which left me with the nameless girl. I could have gone home to unpack some more and then come back, but she mentioned she had nothing do to so I asked her if she wanted to walk around campus and talk since we didn’t know anyone else.

We only walked around for a few minutes before we walked into the newest dorm on campus, which actually had air conditioning. We sat down in the common room and talked for the next hour. I found out that her name was Kate, she was 21, graduated college in three years, and was at FUS for a Masters in Theology. It felt good to really talk to someone here in Steubenville and do more than exchange a quick ‘Hey, my name is Jonathan. Nice to meet you too’.

The ‘Grand Opening’ event wasn’t all that grand, except for Kate’s and my entrance. All the students that were working orientation lined up on either side of the entrance and were clapping and cheering and giving high fives to everyone who entered. I felt like a football player being introduced before the super bowl, the only difference was that I had about three times as many people to go through and give high fives too before I made it into the field house. I found my friend Andrea, who was working orientation, along the way and we grabbed each other’s hands to show we actually knew each other.

After the ‘Grand Opening’ the GNTs met for small groups. We broke up into groups of 8 to get to know each other better. There was a guy in my group who had also graduated from MSU a few years back, another guy who converted to the faith after overcoming alcoholism, and the rest of the people who were lead to FUS by other circumstances.

When our small groups finished at 10:00PM, those of us who still had energy headed down to Damon’s Grill to have a beer and share nachos. I sat at a table with a girl named Liz who spent the last few years of her life waiting tables in Chicago and decided to go back to school and get a degree. I met another guy named Chris who used to work in corrections and wanted to get into something else, so now he’s at FUS. I met Jeff who’s finishing up his Masters of Counseling degree this year, and another Chris who’s married and finishing up a graduate degree. It was an awesome night and I feel really good about how things are going right now. Meeting people is easier than I thought it was going to be, thanks to this GNT group.

I sent Maria a text message to see if she was still up when I was on my way home. I saw a guy I met walking home so I offered him a ride and dropped him off. Shortly after that, Maria called and we talked for a fifteen minutes to get caught up with what we’d each been up too since we talked last. Her neighbors just had their third miscarriage in just over a year, which is really awful. Nothing you can do for a person can make up for that. On the plus side, she did just get a new phone so I can actually talk to her when she’s in her apartment. Her old cell phone constantly broke up and hung up on me and it was really hard to have a conversation with her.

Brett came home right after I got off of the phone with Maria and he had his friend John with him. John doesn’t have a place to live right now so he’s staying at our place. We spent half an hour talking about the day and I found out that Brett was right behind Andrea in the ‘high five’ line and I totally missed him. Whoops! Brett also met a midget today and he was pretty excited about it. I’ll leave it at that because some things are better left unsaid.

It was really great to hear a familiar voice tonight even though I had such a good day. I’ve taken a step in the right direction, but my real friends are still home in Michigan for the time being. That said, I’m watching pictures from the last year of my life on my computer monitor while writing this and one thought comes to my head.

I’m glad I’m here.

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