Fall Break and Reconnections

Well, I don't really have anything new to report, but as most of you know already, Xavier had it's Fall Break Thursday and Friday. That meant a four-day weekend, and I figured mostly everyone would stay on campus for this one. Boy was I wrong! It turns out that about two-thirds of the resident students went home for the weekend, so that meant for once I was the minority on campus. There were actually only about 5 other people on my floor that stayed behind, so that meant: quiet! I actually got some decent sleep this weekend, and didn't have to be interrupted by loud music or screaming at TVs. That was very good for me, needless to say.

Well, despite the fact that I used my break to sleep and relax, this weekend was somewhat productive for me. I didn't really do any school work over the long weekend, considering there really wasn't much to do except for maybe one homework assignment. However, I did take the opportunity to reconnect with a friend from high school that I hadn't talked to in a while. I had been wondering what happened to some of my friends, since I hadn't heard from them since graduation in May of this year. One of my friends in particular that I was thinking about was Melissa. I had first been introduced to her my sophomore year by my very best friend Emily, and I started to hang around her a little bit. Over the next two years, we would talk at lunch or at break, and she always had a knack of making me laugh! She always had such interesting stories to tell, and they always cheered me up a little. Plus, it always seemed like she was in a good mood, unlike many people in high school that were going through the junior-year dramas.

Anyway, I thought of her specifically because she had been one of the last members of my class that I had seen after graduation (at our Project Graduation get-together), and I remembered that she had gone all the way to Michigan for college. I remembered the college distinctly, since it had such an interesting name: Kalamazoo College. So, I went to their website to see if I could find her on there. Unfortunately, the student directory was only available for current students, so I had no luck there. But, I found a place where I could e-mail an administrator, which could be a way to reach her. I figured, he could get me back in touch with her if I asked nicely and told him about her, so that they could match my information against their information. So, I e-mailed him and waited for a reply. Sure enough, the next day I got a reply from him. Here was another dead end. Their policy is to not share that information with non-students, but he said if their was a student that matched my information, he would forward my message to them, so I'd just have to wait and see if I got a response.

Well, this time when I checked my inbox, I found an e-mail from her! She had gotten my forward and immediately contacted me back. It turns out that she is doing well up there in Michigan, and so far she likes the school and the area. Apparently it is cold up there, but that is to be expected in Michigan. Now, we are back to talking again, and it's really great to be able to do that. I just love technology!

I also took time out of my Fall Break to reconnect with an old friend of mine from middle school! Her name is Alex, and we went to the same school (St. Joseph's) from second through eighth grades. After middle school, I went on to Knoxville Catholic High School, and she went to Webb, a private school that was the archrival of KCHS. We actually didn't hear from one another until the St. Joseph's Fall Festival one year, and we began to e-mail each other a little bit. Then I found out how much she didn't like Webb, which really made me happy!

Anyway, I hadn't heard from her in quite a while, and I had started to wonder. I really had no idea if and where she had gone to college, so I had nothing to go on. I had actually forgotten about her and some of my other friends and didn't really want to pursue tracking them down. But, there was some Divine Intervention last night! I was talking to another of my good friends from middle school, Connie, on the AOL Instant Messenger last night. (This is actually very funny, since I just reconnected with her a few weeks ago! She tracked what she thought was me at the University of Tennessee, but actually contacted another Sean M. in the area! But, she also e-mailed my friend Emily at UT, so she got my real e-mail address and e-mailed the real me! Now we have been able to catch up and talk for the past few weeks, which is really great!) Anyway, she just so happened to be on a website and was looking up old friends. Somehow she got to Alex's and found her AIM screen name. I asked her about it, since I was very curious about what Alex was up to, so she told me her screen name and I IM'ed her right away. Boy was this exciting!

Well, it turns out that Alex is in New York City at NYU! She really likes the city, but isn't sure if she likes the school. I asked her why she chose to go all the way out there, and it turns out she just randomly applied there and was accepted! So, she decided to go there, since she hadn't really applied anywhere else except for UT. But, now she's considering coming back to Knoxville for Spring Semester and attending UT. Anyway, then we caught up about everything that was going on in our lives, and I found out so much about her! This isn't really the place to go into that kind of detail, but let me just say that it was so great to finally hear from her again! Now I had a whole bunch of friends across the country with whom I could communicate!

Wow... I can't believe how many reconnections I have had over the past month or so! It's amazing how the Internet can really reunite people that haven't talked in a while! Despite the fact that there are so many bad sites out there, the Internet does have a lot of good qualities, and I'm glad one of those qualities is reuniting old friends. As for the rest of my weekend, I really didn't do much except for watch the UT-Georgia football game (extremely disappointing-UT lost big time), and have an hour-long conversation with my mom. Other than that, I just relaxed in my room and caught up on some current events. So, I guess now I'll be ready to get back to classes on Monday!

Oh, and I wanted to bring up an idea that one of my friends had. He had wanted me to take some pictures of the campus up here and share them. So, I've decided that starting with my next post, I'll put up a picture of a place on campus with a little caption about it. That way everyone can see the kind of environment I'm in right now. And I'll continue to put a new picture up with every new post, until I've run out of places to photograph. So, enjoy!

Well, that's really all I have to write for now! I'll be getting ready to go home at the end of this week, so I'll be sure to let everyone know about my week before I leave. Plus, look forward to a post and some pictures about that weekend! Until then, have a great week, and enjoy this great Fall weather!