Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Slammed

 

It's something I think about every year at this time, and I find it to be one of my more bizarre, yet fond, Christmas memories.

One of my favorite times of the holiday season was the last day of school, especially high school, before Christmas break.  I just loved slamming the books for the last time, throwing them in my locker and running for the door.

It wasn't because I really loved Christmas that much.  I just wanted a two week break.  Things were different when I was a lad.  We weren't the most mobile bunch, so I had two sets of friends-- school friends and neighborhood friends.  Christmas break was spending time with the kids around the house, maybe a backyard football game if it was dry, walks around town to look at Christmas lights and just general hanging out.

There was no email or anything electronic, so the school friends would be on a  two week blackout.  There would be plenty of time to catch up in January.

Mixed feelings hit when I arrived at college.  It was nice to end a semester and take one step closer to a degree.  I'd still be on campus two or three days or nights a week to help run the radio station.  It would be quiet.  All the dorm girls were back at home.  Again there would be time to catch up in January, but I missed them.  I also missed the buzz of an active campus.  Even though it was a small school, we had a solid sense of "community," especially among the communications department.  It was a good bunch, and we never had much of a problem keeping the radio station staffed with live and local voices during the long Christmas break.  Some of us were doing two or three shifts a week and we didn't mind.  We enjoyed doing it.

I do feel sorry for the current crop of college students, everywhere.  A huge part of college is the "experience."  Campuses have energy, and it's gone, at least temporarily.

Now?  Well, there are some special Christmas moments, but it has essentially become just another day.

Kids, enjoy it while you have it.