If y’all don’t understand the title, it’s the first line of Georgetown’s fight song, which is the best fight song ever. Seriously, it is. One of my college housemates once went to some kind of Catholic Youth conference where everyone sang their school’s fight song, and everyone there agreed it was the best. You can hear it here.
Why does that matter exactly? Because as I write I am concluding the first day of my 25th Reunion. I wrote about John’s last year–lucky us, we get to go two years in a row! So at the moment I’m on the 14th floor of the Hyatt in Rosslyn, which is right across the Key Bridge from Georgetown, while my kids are back in Knoxville doing God knows what. (No, I’m kidding, I did make various arrangements for their care and feeding before I left.)
Words cannot express (won’t stop me writing lots and lots of words!) how much I love Georgetown. Maybe everyone feels the same way about their Alma Mater, I don’t know. But I just start grinning goofily the minute the place comes into view (a little different from the way I just about burst into tears when it came into view in August 1985 when my family was getting ready to drop me off there!).
We fought through the 5 o’clock traffic (and if you live in Knoxville and think you know anything about traffic, you just don’t!) yesterday to arrive around six, with just enough time to freshen up and get back into the car to fight traffic some more to go have some wine at my friend Crystal’s house. Crystal was one of my housemates sophomore year, which was when John and I started dating, so she was a witness to all of the drama and lovesickness of those early days. We had a super time seeing her house and then eating dinner at a wonderful neighborhood restaurant and reminiscing as well as talking about politics. Crystal actually talks about politics on CNN! She has a blog called Conservative Black Chick and I’m more of a moderate-to-liberal white chick, but we get along all the same. 🙂 (By the way, if we ever talked about politics ONCE the year we lived together, I certainly don’t remember it. We were too busy watching Moonlighting and drinking.)
We slept in this morning and got to Georgetown a little after one. After we registered for the events we plan to attend (not many of them, because $150 EACH is more than I care to spend on anything that doesn’t last longer than one night, and that’s how much the big evening party costs) we headed for the first lecture, which was a panel on the History of Georgetown, which I won’t bore you with except did you know that Georgetown is the first Catholic university in the United States and that it was founded the same year the Constitution was written and that it was chartered by Congress? We heard all about that and more, and then it was time for the second lecture. This one was called The Problem of God, which is a course that is required for Georgetown Freshmen, and it made us feel so smart to listen to all this deep philosophical/theological stuff. We went to school here and learned about all these things once. We must have been pretty smart. But raising teenagers will make the smartest person feel like an idiot, believe me.
After the lectures and a trip to see the newly renovated Dahlgren Chapel, we found a bench on the lawn in front of the Healy Building and just sat for a good hour, soaking up the atmosphere of the place where we were young. So far, besides Crystal, I haven’t seen except in passing anyone that I knew from school. I haven’t kept up with a lot of people, and most of those I have for one reason or another aren’t making the trip this time. But it’s really enough just to have a Reunion with Georgetown itself. Just being here does something for us, reminds us of what we were 25 years ago and what we still are underneath.
Dahlgren Chapel Window
View of the Healy Building from Dahlgren
Finally we got up and walked to Wisconsin Avenue, to take a look around and get a bite to eat. We went to Martin’s Tavern, an old favorite of John’s and one thing in Georgetown that is older than we are–it’s been here since 1933! Then we walked all the way back to our hotel–just a beautiful walk with the sun setting over the Potomac and so many interesting things to see in every direction.
My classmates are partying under a tent on campus, and I’ve chosen a quiet evening in the hotel, blogging. That’s a real treat for me though! We are supposed to be back on campus tomorrow at 10 a.m. I will let you know if we make it!
Part II
Part III
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