Reunions

[deborahjross]

I had a rich, if somewhat overwhelming time at my 40th reunion at Reed's Fine College (Portland, OR). The weekend was an amazing combination of catching up with news and diving into challenging, wide-ranging intellectual discussions as if no time at all had passed. The theme of the weekend was music, following a week-long Alumni College on that topic. So there were lots of musical type things to do, as well as the usual class dinners, department reunions... and Portland's drippy weather. Friday night, we folk danced to a live Balkan band. The guy who led the event was Jim Kahan '64, who taught the students that I learned folk dancing from.

Folk dancing was the heart of my social life at Reed. I used to dance twice a week from the opening number until they closed us down. For years after graduation, I dreamed of that special magic when I set aside my studies and hastened to the student union, warm lights, people moving in rhythmic unison ... and the music wafting out to greet me. This night captured much of that spirit. Many old friends (including my dearest college friend, who got out there with 2 metallic hip joints for the slower dances), and younger dancers who understood that encompassing joy. And hot damn, if I can't still do gankino and pajduska and lesnoto with them youngsters! (Even if I did have creaky knees the next day.) (All those years of martial arts and Pilates and yoga, not to mention fanatically healthy eating, have paid off royally.)

So many of us seem to have gone through the agonies of coming to college as far-too-bright nerds, struggled through having to work our asses off to be just mediocre in classes dominated by those even brighter and more nerdy than thou, wrestled with the pressure to continue on to grad or professional school, and finally are making our peace with the shape of our lives as they are, with all their failures and satisfactions. Took us 4 decades to get here, still a work in progress.

Having been a pre-med major and having been rejected by many medical schools, I attest to the divine satisfaction of having BigNameDoctor say to me, with no small trace of awe, "You're a published writer? Wow, I could never do that."

Comments

[lingster1.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a good time! I remember loving country dancing when I was in college -- and the eager-bright-nerd in a pool of even-more-eager-and-brighter-young-nerds feeling. A few years ago I was lucky enough to be back in England when the college celebrated its 150th, and I got to meet all those girls who'd been so bright and so gorgeous and so socially adept and they all expressed awe at the fact that I'd published. If only we could've peeked into the future in those days, we would've saved some heartache!

[equesgal.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a great time. I too love dancing. Can never keep the grin off my face as I twirl about. ;-)

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

So true, but would we have listened to ourselves?

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

I loved the community aspect, that you didn't need a date or even a partner for most of the dances. You could just dance with your friends. The emotional opposite of those awful school dances in jr and high, where all the boys lined up on one side of the room and all the girls on another, with this impenetrable barrier in between. (Now, I understand, it's much more accepted for girls to dance with one another -- and maybe boys, too? -- but this was the early '60s, and the rampant conventionalism of the '50s was still in force. Boys Ask Girls To Dance was the unbreakable rule.)