billy . . . joel

it seems as though a tour group filled with dozens of perspective students comes to visit PEW almost nightly these days. tis' the season i guess. the season where every senior in high school (much earlier if you had my parents) is asked to make "the biggest and most important choice of their lives."

seeing the tours roam through PEW always always always takes me back to my first and only gcc tour experience. my brother, being the over-acheiver that he is, decided that a typical tour that the admissions office would arrange for me wouldn't be sufficient to make me desperate to attend grove. granted, he had a hard battle to fight: i was mere days away from sending my acceptance letter back to wheaton with a big YES! from me. i was so close packing my bags and heading to the windy city, and the rest would've been history.

but i had promised sean one last look at gcc before i made up my mind. so called in the troops (aka, derek bradley, who had taken over as SGA president after sean) and had him arrange a private, back-stage tour of the theatre, complete with a sit-in on the current production (What Fools These Mortals Be) in rehearsal. i remember ever so clearly the moment when i entered PEW for the first time. i opened up those big heavy, locked more often than not, wooden doors and looked onto the most massive stage space i'd ever seen in my young life. dr. dixon was sitting in the darkened auditorium, nodding his head at the actors in what i assumed at the time was some sort of unusual head gesture problem, though i've certainly come to learn that its just how he is. on stage there were two actors. though the identify of one is still unknown to me, the other was the none other than mr. michael barakat. i can still remember my first thought being, "if all the guys in the drama program here look like that, i will most certainly come here."

and so i did. and i guess when tours peek in the doors of PEW, that thought always crosses my mind. (and by "thought" i do not mean lustful ideas about mike. katie, i had to put that in for you, as i knew you would ask.) i wonder if they'll come to the grove. and if they come, what'll they do and who they'll be and how they will impact the campus. college is such a cycle, an ebb and flow. we all contribute our little piece to the tiny puzzle that is grove city college. its always a bittersweet feeling to know that the puzzle will still be complete, even when you leave it behind.

PS - last night we watched "requiem for a cabin" at pat's apartment. it was hysterical and delightful and a wonderful time . . . but all the while i absolutely ached for katie and chelsea.