Rewind and Fast-forward

Last week, I felt my life rewind and fast-forward. I walked down Ho Plaza, ate a pizza bagel in CTB and chatted in Libe Café as if I never left. On Saturday night, I navigated through crowds of young alumni and students in Collegetown. In my head, the lyrics of a famous television theme song began to play, and I realized why so many of us had returned.

We sought to once again experience the familiarity of our years as students. “Just walking down College Ave. felt like senior year,” shared Jen Rosenbaum ’06. “It was reassuring to know that, regardless of where I lived, I was able to return to the ‘bubble’ of Cornell and pick up right where I’d left off.” As Krystyn Tendy ’05, MPA ’06 drove along Route 79 back to Cornell, one of her friends asked if anyone felt they were heading home. “And I couldn’t have agreed more ... Once you get back, you really get to see just how special a place it is,” she said.

At home in Ithaca, the weekend seemed more about the memorable places and faces than the homecoming game. With the strange realization of having no papers to write or meetings to attend, our only time constraint was fitting our four years as a student into one weekend. We visited Wegmans, the gorges and, of course, crowded the bars. “I was glad to go back to the Palms, and play my usual four songs on the jukebox — Toto’s “Africa,” Meatloaf’s “I Would Do Anything For Love,” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and Sinatra’s “New York New York,” said Dan Schudroff ’05, who also ate at Shortstop Deli, the order acronyms for which he had not forgotten — PMP’s (Poor Man’s Pizza) and WGC’s (Wet Garlic and Cheese). Once we stepped on campus, the friendships we established felt like they had not missed a beat. “My college roommates live in different cities now, so we used Homecoming as a great excuse to reconnect on our old stomping grounds” said Emily Posner ’04, who also met two of her Professors for brunch. Returning “home,” we appreciated Cornell more than ever and wished that our time had not passed as quickly.

With graduation, the social familiarity of college changed significantly. It was comforting to sit on the Arts Quad, knowing we could wave to at least one person walking by us. “After graduating, I was forced to only see their AIM screen names,” expressed Jon Bellante ’06, who is now living in Arkansas. Now, on a daily basis as we travel to work, there are no friends to walk with as we did while heading to class. With less than an hour for lunch, we no longer have one dining hall where we congregate. We have adjusted to not studying in the evening, but there is no replacement for the productive and procrastinating social scene of Olin and Uris libraries. For one weekend, we sought to experience college in the place it had begun and with the friends we made as students.

Living in scattered locations, we adapt to not being within a five mile or door radius. “My social life now requires much more planning and coordination,” said Bryce Webster ’06. Often, we start with the familiar and then branch off to our next phase of friendships. “Since I moved to Manhattan, socially, it’s like Cornell with skyscrapers. I’m making new friends in law school, but I find myself spending a lot of time with my Cornell friends,” said Krystyn Tendy ’05. “It’s nice to have someone understand when I make some offhand comment like ‘Oh man, I really want Hot Truck.’”

Our new careers and graduate schools expand our social network, but not nearly as much as just showing up at a house party in Collegetown. We meet new hires, but there are only so many and they vary in age. “The group gets larger as people bring in friends” said EJ Track ’06 of spending time with co-workers. Living in suburbia, Claire Lambrecht ’06 meets people who are generally older than her and married.

While there are now more people to meet, it is not always as simple to be introduced. With hectic work schedules, everyone is busy with their lives. “There is little time to develop meaningful relationships,” Will Chang ’05 expressed. “I think one of the advantages of a college environment is that you get to meet interesting and diverse people in an easily accessible environment.” Once we graduate, it is not as easy. Dan Greenwald ‘05 discovered one solution to this predicament: “You need to create a social circle. It won’t create itself like in college. But if you do, you can have the fun you had in college without the worry of papers and midterms,” he shared.

Last week, as I walked into my second Zinck’s night as an alumna, I felt my life fast-forward. The year before, I attended not knowing anyone. However, this year I greeted people at the door, recognizing many Cornellians I had met in New York City. We share a common bond. “Five hours from Ithaca…it was strong enough to get 200 people to put whatever else they could have been doing on hold and come celebrate that fact,” agreed Krystyn Tendy ’05.

Although it will not always be the same places or faces, the familiar memories unite us in spite of the changes in our social lives. As I left Zinck’s night, the lyrics of that famous television theme song from Cheers came back to me just as it had during Homecoming: “Wouldn’t you like to get away? Sometimes you want to go. Where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.”

Correction: The research for Etan Rand’s patent/company was based off experience working in a rehabilitation clinic with patients who had spinal cord injuries, not from research conducted at Cornell, as stated in my last column.

Julia Levy ’05 graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences in 2005. She currently works as a Research Assistant at Tanner & Co., Inc. She can be contacted at jml82@cornell.edu. One Year Out appears alternate Fridays.