Be Cool With Your School

You went to college and at the end they gave you a piece of paper that allowed you to negotiate the best available salary in your field of endeavor. If you havn't been back to your alma mater since you left, I have to ask a question - why not?????

I went to a college reunion last spring and was SHOCKED to find out that there are a lot of people who haven't been back to the schools they attended since they left.  I even listened to some very sobering stories about the experience for some people and it was not encouraging at all. If these stories hadn't been about the school I also attended, I would have asked why they decided to go there - but it was my school - and while I readily admit that it wasn't a crystal stair, I had plenty of chances to pop people right back into their place - I can't place a value on the things I learned there, made some incredible life long frends, boadened my horizons and laid the foundation for my personal mission statement.  If you didn't at least come away with that, I'm sorry, but let also encourage you - you're not dead yet and there is no time like to present to get the education you want and deserve.

But I don't care how it went down, you did leave school.  As long as you didn't leave in a straightjacket with a butterfly net over your head, I think that you should continue to contribute to your school and work with them.  You didn't steal your degree, you EARNED it!  Every letter, every hour of time, every hour of the work study program, every hour in the library, getttng tossed out at closing time - that experience is yours, and I think that you should give back, and offer your time, and participate in the programs . You didn't get walked out by a guard at 6:00 am in the morning after the end of your jail sentence, you're not a bill collector, and you didn't get catapulted out of the tower onto the street.

The students of today need your example - they need to know that one day this will all be behind them and they will be working too, and that they have to pay it forward for the next group that needs to be mentored.  They need to know that this isn't the first class of people who look like them at this school, even though they may feel that they are being treated that way.  and hey, guess what?  You're not there to seek revenge on those who may not have had your back at the time - you're there to be a mentor and a role model and exemplify dignity, especially in the face of adversity. 

I challenge you to go to some events, meet with some of your classmates - go as a group if you must, but go back to your school and help out. If you're not proud of your school, maybe the time has come to get some closure and put your feelings of hurt and anguish behind you.  If you don't deal with it - it will deal with you.