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April 20, 2008
Malibu Memoirs
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Malibu Memoirs
For the past week, I've been capping off my journey abroad with some time on-campus at Pepperdine in Malibu, California. I set out with a list of things to accomplish, including landing an on-campus job, picking up a minor, meeting my adviser, and settling my housing situation for next year. But while I knew I would be spending a lot of time with the guys I'm living with in a house next year - all eight of them - (and no, I'm not in a fraternity, though a few folks consider us to be) negotiating the terms of our lease, I was ecstatic to run into some familiar faces. I stayed with some friends from the DC program I was apart of Fall semester and between them (along with others during our DC reunion) and everyone who was close to me freshman year, I am very satisfied with the amount of relationships I was able to rekindle. Of course, I knowingly stalled many of these friendships by choosing to go abroad, to DC and London respectively, but the euphoria of hearing a girl shrieking my name across the caf. or the glowing smile of a guy turning around on his walk to class after I recalled a nickname of his is something completely beyond the joy I found on my own travels.
Perhaps the most striking aspect, though, was not what I knew or accomplished, but watching how the campus evolved around me. Sure, there are physical changes from last year and the adjustment of life on campus according to those changes, but the new waves of... pardon the pun... Waves left me feeling a bit out of place. There are the seniors from last year who no longer walk the halls, the juniors who were all abroad last year as sophomores, and of course the incoming class of freshman who are all ready to be shipped next year to go abroad themselves. Oh how I hardly knew ye. But such is the cycle of life in Malibu. Of course I'll be sure to keep myself busy meeting all the even NEWER people next year. But as that is still on the horizon, I was happy just to make my way around the campus I called home and will once again call home. Facebook just doesn't relay that human element in our relationships with one another, so seeing friends in the flesh meant a tremendous lot to me. My trip may have been one of business in pronouncement, it was all pleasure in nature.
Posted by Lambert on April 20, 2008 4:12 AM
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