New Blog Post:
I returned to Sweet Briar College a couple of weeks ago for what I feared was the last time. I had not been there since 1981.
My last visit there, 34 years ago, was populated by ghosts and anxiety. I was part of the Class of 1981 at Washington and Lee University. Most of my friends were from the class of 1980. When I went to Spring Weekend there, in 1981, we were already beginning to deal with the past.
I was there with one of my best friends, my first close friend at W&L, who had lost the love of his life to another man while his Sweet Briar girl was on Junior Year Abroad. Thus it was poignant to begin with.
But more importantly, the Class of 1980 was gone. Those had been our friends and our link to Sweet Briar. The Sweet Briar Girls we came to see that weekend felt the loss just as we did…Our friends who had made our college years so special had graduated. It was not the same…..
After that weekend, I never thought I would be at Sweet Briar again. I thought it was time to move on and put it all in the past.
As a History major, I should have known better. Our past, collectively and individually, is a part of us and only time can show us how much a part of us it really is….
Lost in the 21st Century 