Reunion!
My ten year college class of architecture reunion was this weekend. One classmate spearheaded organizing the entire weekend – there was a gathering with professors Friday night, a visit to campus, tailgating, and a game on Saturday, and brunch on Sunday.
Steven and I attended the Saturday events – which also happened to be my first tailgate and football game ever! And it was homecoming weekend at Iowa State University (ISU)!
We arrived in town late Friday night and we ran in to several classmates at the hotel. I immediately thought to myself “Why didn’t I spend the months leading up to this looking at everyone’s social media profiles so I would remember their names?!” Oops. There were about sixty-five of us in the architecture program, and about thirty coming to the reunion*. That’s a lot to remember! But I did a screenshot of the invitee list so that on Saturday I could peek if I forgot someone’s name – which I did a few times! Shhh. Hee hee.
I did spend time before the event thinking it was odd that I was going back at all. I was friendly with everyone in college, but a bit of a withdrawn loner – I didn’t participate in the extracurricular group events that the entire class was invited to. I had a few friends that I hung out with from time to time, but I mostly kept to myself. I wasn’t shy. I just did my school work and my own thing. Eh.
So it seemed odd to go back after all these years and do the things I didn’t do when I was in school.
And I had so much fun at the reunion that it made me think “I wish I would have been more social when I was in school.” But not so much from a regretful standpoint. More of an “okay, learn your lesson, Kim” standpoint – people can be fun and you don’t have to be so withdrawn all. the. time. Yeah… anyway…
A bus was rented to take us from the hotel (about thirty miles from campus) to the college and to tailgating, and back at the end of the day. Leading up to the day, I was imagining a school bus with traditional seats, but that wasn’t what this was! It was a bus with a bench seats down both sides and across the back, and party lights and speakers. My classmates had a playlist prepped with tunes that were popular from 2002-2007, when we were in school. Ha ha ha. Perfection.
We rode to the College of Design – the campus building where we finished our last two years of school.
We walked in and everyone immediately commented on how it looked, felt, and even smelled the same as it did ten years ago. Ahh, memories of way too much time spent in that building.
We were all curious to see the new underclassman studio addition to the building. When we were in school, our underclassmen (years one through three) studios were in the armory. The space the underclassmen have now is way more posh! And it’s nice that it’s actually connected to the College of Design (we were across the street).
After the tours we tailgated until was game time. Steven’s fraternity brothers were tailgating too, so he got to see them!
As I mentioned, this was my first football game. I had to have Steven explain football to me on the drive the night before so I would know what I was watching (I understand fútbol, not football). But I was mostly able to follow, yay!
We sat with several of my classmates and saw ISU get two touchdowns in the first half. The opposing team got a touchdown right away at the beginning of the second half, and things got tense, but ISU won, which was a big deal because the other team was ranked so high. People stormed the field, which was exciting to see!
A few people had tailgated the entire time we were at that game, and when we got back afterward, they were in very good spirits. Ha ha. We had an entertaining bus ride back to the city.
Then had a very late dinner and called it a night!
Steven and I both had a great time, and are happy we went back. It was fun reconnecting with my classmates, and I’m grateful someone took the time to organize it all. They’re talking about doing it again in five years, and I’ll totally be there!
*When I got back home I looked at the list of people who declined on Facebook, and realized I had completely forgotten about a lot of them! Eek!
Themocracy
That sounds so fun! That’s great that you both got to reconnect with classmates and friends (I always forget Steven was in a fraternity LOL). I wouldn’t regret not being too involved in stuff then either, but it’s good that you can see the value in it now! 🙂
I was probably even more of a loner than you in college – I didn’t actually make any friends at school during my 4 years. I lived at home and knew people from my high school who also went to my college, and I had friends at work, so I really didn’t bother trying to meet new people. So I’d pretty much never go to a college reunion. But that said, having run a 5k on my college campus a couple times, I do know the feeling of going back!
When I was in school my department was housed in a “temporary” (it ended up being like 15 years I think ha ha ha) trailer while the building we were supposed to move into was under construction. They’ve since demolished the trailer, so the Sociology Anthropology students get to have class in a real building now! Talk about posh LOL
Oh yeah – that would really set you up not to connect with the people in your classes! Did you have lots of group projects were you at least figured out who was decent to work with – or was most of it solo study?
I ran through campus several years back when we were there for a wedding and really enjoyed it! I’d love to do that again.
Wow! An actual building!!!! Way posh! Ha!
Now that you mention it, I feel like we were ALWAYS doing group projects. Most teachers assigned the groups, so I just worked with whoever (and usually did more of the work – so good preparation for the career world LOL).
Group projects are really good prep for the career world in that sense!
Sounds like a great weekend! That’s pretty cool that they even made a playlist of songs for the bus from the time when you were in school.
It was so funny – I couldn’t believe I remembered the songs (some back story – these songs would be played on full blast in the studios and since we were in an open space in the armory, we could ALL hear them, ha ha ha).
Wait wait wait – that was your first football game??? Does not compute. I mean, I even went to them when I lived in California and not just football-crazy Texas! That is wild.
Sounds like a great weekend, and you know, sure, you might have been more social back then, but everyone was probably more stressed/busy with school, so you’re probably seeing a different side of your classmates now. Just a thought.
Yeah! My family has never been in to it, so it wasn’t passed down to me to care about it 🙂 I had fun at the game though!
Yeah, we’re all different now for sure! But I know a lot of these people partied pretty hard and made time to be social (I saw pics from all the parties, lol) and do their school work. I think architecting came more naturally to them (which is probably why they do it now and I don’t!!!!).
You’ve NEVER been to a football game OR tailgated?! EVER?!?! Holy cow, what a crazy little factoid about you! (Though I guess neither of those are true any more.) I’m pretty sure I was an infant when I went to my first football game haha. I’m really more distressed by the fact that you had never tailgated until this past weekend, though. I can kind of take or leave football games (it mostly depends on the weather – those games are so long that if the weather isn’t perfect, they can get pretty miserable pretty quickly), but tailgating is the BEST — all that food and such a fun and excited atmosphere! My cousin played football in college, and my favorite part of going to his games, hands down, was the tailgating beforehand.
I hadn’t! Ha ha ha. It wasn’t something my family did (we went to car shows) and I didn’t make time for it in college. It sounds like it was super ingrained in your family, and that it meant a lot to you all! I can totally see getting excited about all the food (especially grilling), and less so the game (it was a bit cold at this one, ha). That’s cool your cousin played!!!
I saw your comment on another blog and popped over…and saw the ISU shirts in your pic! I’m actually a Hawkeye (don’t hate me LOL), but our oldest daughter went to ISU (graduated May 2016). Although the hubby and I are both Iowa Hawkeyes, we cheer for ISU (except when they’re playing Iowa). What a season the Cyclones are having! That game on Saturday was awesome!
Thanks for stopping over! 🙂 I don’t hate you, ha ha ha! It’s all in fun and games!!! I hope you tease your daughter about going to ISU though 😉
It’s been quite the season! It was exciting to be there on Saturday!!! And congrats to Iowa for winning too 🙂
This sounds like the perfect reunion–some catching up and reflecting on how you have changed since school and a little bit of nostalgia! I’m glad you had a such a nice weekend!
I also need the football rules explained to me. It just doesn’t stick!
Did your classmates mostly end up doing the same types of jobs? Or did they branch out and do something that is not “directly” related like you do?
It was perfect! I am so glad we went! And glad Steven enjoyed it too.
Right? I have had it explained before but couldn’t remember. Maybe I will this time since I went to a game.
A lot of them are licensed architects, but several have a different focus like me, or are in a completely different field.
Sounds like a very fun day!
I’ve only been to one football game and it was fun to watch how into it everyone else was LOL
That building is beautiful! I really love the half moon little deck areas….is there a real name for those??
That was fun about this game too – everyone knew all these different cheers and signals to do with their hands. LOL.
Those are the stair landings. I don’t think there is a name for that style. 🙂