Wow. I just read Warren's entry, and it almost had me in tears. I mean, first of all, Warren's not usually the sentimental and sweet type. :) But also, it's all true.

I did graduate Ripon, thank god, because there was a time when it looked like a remote possibility at best. But I spent five years there. And I met some really, truly amazing people. I have to say that academically, I disagree with Warren. Maybe it's because I spent a longer time there, but I feel like I learned alot of things there, including academic info, but also life lessons and a damn lot about myself. But yes, most important is the friends I made. Some I made and lost, but they already made a mark on me. Some I made and lost and remade, much to my happiness. Some have been there all along. (And thank god again for them). I met the first love of my life there. That's a big one.

When I was a freshman, for anyone who doesn't remember or know this about me, I was a Mormon. I had a good friend I used to keep in touch with who acted as a spiritual guide for me. I cried on his shoulder to alleviate the guilt of the first beer I drank at college. (Playing drinking games with Reiser, Woody and others). He would say tacky Mormon phrases to me, like, "It's your duty to live IN the world, not OF the world." Anyway, he once asked me, when I was having a homesickness problem, that maybe I should stop thinking of why I went to Ripon and start wondering if that was where god wanted me to be, and figure out why. Good advice, I guess. Not too long after that conversation, Andy asked me out.

At this point, I could plead that the rest is obvious and just say, "End of point, enough said." But I don't want to.

Although in the beginning Andy scared the hell out of me, I quickly realized that he was the reason I had been sent to Ripon, no matter whether myself or god were behind it. Because I went to Ripon, I got to have an amazing six years with a man who made me feel things I didn't even know were possible. A man who taught me more about the world, and more about myself and the person I am and could be, than I could possibly list. Sometimes I dream that I answer the phone and hear his voice.

Bigger tangent than I meant to have. The other point is that Warren is absolutely right about Tau. I have written in here many times about the amazing things that Taus have done for me, both in times of great stress and just every day things. I remember some of my friends and family members being shocked at the idea of me wanting to join a "fraternity." Even I was shocked, at first. But thankfully my subconscious was smarter than my conscious self, and I did it anyway. Joining Tau is on my top five list of best decisions I ever made. Not because of house meetings and coed dorms and shared laundry rooms and arguments over dues and parties and all that. But because it introduced me to people who became my best friends, my family. And it introduced me to new ideas, new activities. It made me a different person.