Have you ever felt you wanted your holiday to extend and keep going for some more time?
That is where I am now. The holiday was restful. There were some visits we made to people we knew from about 30 years back as college students. We visited with our girls and their friends. The visits to old friends made for happy and sad times- happy in terms of seeing them alive and sad in terms of knowing how different life is now than when we were young. Life seemed to stretch as a long belt in front of us. Thirty years down, we realize how frivolous and testy life is. Things change. What we expected to happen 30 years back did not happen at all and what we never expected to see have happened.
Many of our old professors are either living lives of retirement or semi-retirement. The present crop of students don’t know or have never heard of the “Terror of our times” – our Anatomy professor, who was nicknamed MaJa short for her first name and surname. To young 17 and 18 year olds, this venerable professor seemed ever lasting and always seemed to hover around the department wearing her white sari. White was considered the colour of Anatomy. Times have changed- Daughter 2 mentions how friendly she is with all the Anatomy tutors and how they socialize even outside classes- a thing unheard or un-thought of during our times. MaJa doesn’t hover around Anatomy any more – nor do any of her successors. Children of her successors are however teachers there and there has been change- positive change. Anatomy is not a subject of fear anymore.
I visited a couple of retired professors who lived a few kilometers off the campus and relived old days. The days were reminisced through my husband’s eyes’ rather than my own for my days in the college had been difficult and I cannot remember many pleasant days there. Anyway, my husband caught up with old memories and discussed the difficult but “good old days”.
Another person we visited was a classmate of my husbands’ and who also happen to provide daughter 2 with home cooked meals on days she wants a change from hostel food. His wife has just recovered from a difficult surgery for an advanced disease so we could revisit with her. I remember her as a senior about three years older to me and who was so full of energy and enthusiasm for any thing ” the alma mater”. Today she is a subdued, mature lady in her early fifties, with a smile that speaks of pain and gratitude. Seeing her has been a shock to me and a reminder of how short or how soon life can change for a person.
A long plane ride back in cramped seats and a day spent in bed, recovering from the short trip made for a happy ending.
I’m glad you have good visit but it is always good to ‘be back home.’
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As they say, a hundred years of life to you. I was thinking about you today wondering why the silence.
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Oh dear, really ? Travelling. I thought you were busy with exam schedules.
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More like work deadlines!
Good to hear back from you!
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Sounds like a wonderful visit. It’s powerful how seeing people as they are today, compared to our memories of them, can make us feel. Glad you made it back and getting some rest.
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Glad you had a good trip visiting with family and friends Susie. Sorry to read about your friend being unwell and seemingly aging before your very eyes – you described her pain-filled eyes perfectly for us -and that’s such a shame. We students did not socialize with our professors either back in the day – times are so different now with online classes, or everything done online – it was rigid and strict for us and addressing them as “Professor” was the standard and mandatory … my friend who is in her last year of grad school, tells me of these online classes and “team meetings with other students” – not your traditional university classes that we remember so well. Now it’s back to reality after the respite – how quickly the time shared with friends and family passes us by.
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She was a senior in my medical college and one of the noisy ones. Always ready for a song and some noise. She was so enthusiastic about the college rhetoric and everything it stood for that she chose to stay on there and be a professor. I can’t say she was a role model but her boisterousness made her noticed. Today she is well, what can i say- subdued ? mellowed down? matured?- the pain life gives has given her that and the change has made her truly beautiful. My younger daughter adores her. I never imagined my daughter to have that sort of relationship with someone who was from my senior class and one with whom I was not so close to, as a student. How things topple over and change when looked at from the upside down angle.
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That is sad – yes pain does make you take on a different demeanor – one of weariness and impatience with life and all the curveballs it throws you. Yes, how strange that your daughter has gravitated toward her – I guess you were pretty surprised to discover this relationship then Susie?
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We went back to our college after 50 years. Everything had changed, so there were no sad meetings or seeing old friends. The campus had changed so that everything appeared fresh and rejuvenated. Our past there had been erased. I was happy to see it and happy to leave. My heart is elsewhere.
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I like your outlook Anne. Our college is the same as it was in our time- no change, nothing changed except the human beings. Seeing old hostel rooms, I expected the inmates I knew who stayed there to come out of those rooms. It is like time has stood still for me when I visited those old passages. The granite buildings of about a 100 years back are still the same. They are not very well maintained and there is very little sunlight in those rooms. I like the way you said, your heart is elsewhere.
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That is sad that the buildings are not well maintained.
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I never had a holiday that lasted long enough, Susie, so I can relate. But now that I’m retired my dream has come true. I had a very busy four days of looking after grandsons and going to a play one of them was in, and today is my day to recover. I miss them but will rest today.
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Hi Susie, I’m so glad to read your trip was restful and you found a happy ending along with some rest after travel. Traveling is always tiring, at least I find it to be. Like you, the day after traveling I am usually very tired.
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It is always odd to go back to where we were young. Our minds always remember the people there as they were back then. It comes as kind of a shock to discover they have aged and so have we!
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I revisited an old friend this week. Reminiscing was wonderful, as you say, but the reality of today is so different!
Glad you had a wonderful trip!
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Susie, I’m so glad you got to have a wonderful trip visiting past memories.
College memories isn’t the same for me- I graduated at age 38 with two children. The other students treated me like their mother.
But now I get to visit my old high school because my granddaughters go there. It’s a middle school now, but the memories when I go to pick up granddaughters are wonderful. Met my husband there, many good memories with him.
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It sounds like a bittersweet catch up in some ways Susie..But now you are home you can recharge those batteries …I hope you took lots of photos and made more memories 🙂
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Not many pictures, Carol- I am not sure what is with me these days but I am not into taking pictures or looking through old pictures on my phone anymore. I guess I don’t like looking at how much I have changed over the years. Thanks for visiting.
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My picture taking is a little erratic I forget when
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My picture taking is a little erratic I forget when I am in the moment..haha and yes we all change but that is inevitable although not always something we like to see 🙂
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