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One Journey Through
A World of Stories
"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
- Joseph Campbell
Homecoming 2016
After a cross-country road trip and a few weeks at home, I decided it was time to head back to Colgate to reminisce of the college days.
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Immediately after arriving on campus I jumped right into a classic "college party" - a social binge drinking venue featuring beer games, a dress theme, and a bunch of rowdy college kids.
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In some ways it felt all too familiar to play beer pong in the unfinished basement of cheap student housing... but I also felt distant. I spent a lot of the evening recounting and rerecounting ever-truncated versions of my recent journey and what it was like to be adrift in the Real World.
While it was nice to catch up with people from the past, I was glad to make my escape to the Adirondacks, evading the Homecoming hullaballoo.
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I headed north with an alum and planned to spend the weekend climbing with my old Outdoor Education trainer. Due to wet weather, we ended up adventuring and relaxing more than we did technical rock climbing.
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Regardless, it was exactly where and what I wanted to be doing: enjoying the simple life, out in nature's beauty, with good friends and food.
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It was a fitting end to my journey-through-nostalgia because the Adirondacks were where I spent a lot of my time in college anyway!
Soon after arriving back on campus I was back to my old ways: setting up my slackline in the quad, greeting old friends, and enticing newcombers to try their luck.
Over the next few days I managed to catch up with a number of my favorite professors and students; all seemed to approve of my current stance on life, "evade the yoke while you can."
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Interacting with this bustling crowd of academics, young and old, reminded me of just how much stress the college environment holds. I was lucky enough to enjoy the upstate autumn beauty with no worries at all!
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This journey reaffirmed my belief that "life is, as you make it". Whether you're a college student, professor, service worker, or wanderer, life could be full of stress, or joy, or both. I believe that you find what you are looking for, that your attitude matters as much as your environment, and that there are few material things that lead to happiness...not to say it doesn't matter what I do from here; only that my perception matters just as much!
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