I'm A Forester Forever!

My 15th Year College Reunion at Lake Forest College is next Friday and I'm so excited about it I can hardly focus on anything else.

Late last year, my good friend Tim State asked me to chair the reunion committee and, after a couple of martinis, I said yes. I honestly had no idea what I'd gotten myself into, whether I'd be able to put together a committee, if we'd be able to pull of a reunion, and whether anyone would even remotely remember me. Luckily, my concerns were ill-founded. I had the great privilege of a wonderful committee - Tripp Goltermann, Worth Hawes, Carrie Ann (Collopy) Hill, Amie (Sunseri) Marks, Amy (Rogers) Murphy, Janice Pytel, Tim State, and Steve Vignocchi - representing most of the diversity in our class. They've worked really hard, we've put together what I believe is going to be an awesome reunion, and I've had a great time reconnecting with not only each of them, but also many other classmates along the way.

I didn't go to my 5 year or 10 year reunions. I also didn't go to my 10 year high school reunion. My attitude when I graduated from both high school and college was that I was done and I didn't want to look back. Ever. My college years were a really difficult time in my life and I thought the only way to put the difficulties behind me was to throw out all of my college experience, including the great times, and there were many great times. As I've discussed before, I have gone to smaller alumni events in both DC and Chicago, but reunions just weren't my thing. I was wrong. And the more I've worked on this reunion, the more I realize that. I wish I'd gone to my 5 and 10 year reunions and I'll definitely be at my 20 year high school reunion next year.

One of the fun things we've planned for our reunion is a DVD of candid Class of '93 college pictures that will play in the background all night. Because the College's Archives were a little slim in Class of '93 pictures, many of the pictures have come from our committee members and others gathered from classmates. I pulled together my own pictures last week and can't believe how much I enjoyed rummaging through old boxes of pictures, yearbooks, and other college mementos. I discovered that it was possible to hold onto the good parts of college and let go of the difficult times. I also realized that my closest friends today were friends I made at Lake Forest and that the friendships I hold dearest, even if we've lost touch, were friendships I made at LFC.

As an alum of LFC, we all hear and see the slogan "You're a Forester Forever" regularly and being part of my reunion committee and having to take some crazy trips down memory lane these last 9 months have given true meaning to that phrase for me.

I'm a Forester Forever and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The pictures below represent the best of my college pics. Enjoy my trip down memory lane and the bad hair. :)