Homecoming...

On Saturday, we went to Homecoming at Campbell, our join alma mater. Memories... I graduated in 2001, and David graduated in '99, and we were both government majors. We took many of the same classes, had the same professors, and worked pretty hard to be good students. As a result, we are loved by our old department. =) Last year, David got an email saying that the Government dept. wanted to give him their Distinguished Alumnus award. The catch? We'd have to go to Homecoming to get it. David didn't get many weekends off while he was working on the Court, so he declined and asked to be nominated again. =) They were gracious enough to do so, so that's how we found ourselves in D. Rich 119 at 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning, eating catered cafeteria food and chatting with the handful of alumni and profs who showed up. We didn't remember this brunch as a fancy affair, so you can see that David dressed up to receive his award. =) They didn't care; I think Dr. Martin (who's handing him his award) was the only one in a suit and tie.

I was thinking about it, and I realized that it was ridiculous how much I'd been looking forward to going back to Campbell last week. I really wanted a chance to catch up with.. my former professors. =) College was hard for me socially. A roommate disaster (she was loved, and I was blamed for her meltdown) during freshman year on a small campus can earn you pariah status pretty quickly. She transferred, and she later apologized for the mess, but the damage was done. I had a select and small handful of friends. It was tough at times. But in the classroom, things were much smoother sailing. My classes were small, they were all taught by a handful of full professors, most of whom are still around. I still remember the excitement of picking up my new textbooks for class. I can picture particular professors pacing the room, and I can remember bits of particularly memorable lectures. I'm a proud nerd, and I am not ashamed to say that making good grades and learning a lot of new things were high goals for me at Campbell. I may not have excelled in the social realm, but I could achieve in the academic realm. And it was good.

Here we have Dr. Thornton holding my little man. Dr. Thornton teaches international law mostly. I had him for several classes, and he was one of the youngest, hippest professors in the department. I knew of several girls who had secret crushes on him. Dr. Thornton came to our wedding and brought his little son with him. How many professors did you have that came to your wedding? 'Nuf said. This is a special guy.

Ahh, the infamous Dr. Schroeder. An unashamed Republican, he teaches National Government, Political Parties, multiple Political Thought classes, and the dreaded Constitutional Law courses. As a freshmen, taking his National Government course convinced me that I needed to change my major from Journalism to Government. I realized that I wanted to take classes on something I was interested in writing about, not a bunch of classes on how to write. I loved every class I took with him, even the one that caused me to throw up popcorn before my final exam. Talk about stress... Speaking of professors and political affiliations, it is my firm belief that professors need to come out and tell their students where they stand when the semester starts. None of us are dumb enough to think that professors are a blank slate, totally impartial, with no worldview or political affiliation. Even if they aren't gung ho about advancing that affiliation, it will still influence what they teach and how they teach it to some extent. I think their students need a disclaimer so that they know where this teacher if coming from, and they can take their biases into account accordingly. That's my soapbox for today... and now the baby is waking up 15 minutes early from his nap, and I must depart...