35 University Life

 

University was a true coming of age experience for me.

For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by a large group of people my own age, all of us living away from home and discovering who we were. There was studying, socializing, friendships, parties, and endless opportunities to explore life.

Everything felt new.

It was also a major turning point.

When I left for college, I traveled far from home and, in a very real sense, never lived at home again. From that point forward, home became wherever I happened to be.

It was a turning point for my parents as well.

As the youngest child—the "baby" of the family—I expected a more gradual transition. Instead, my parents dropped me off at the University of Georgia, skipped orientation entirely, and headed straight to New Orleans for a week of fun and celebration.

I was stunned by the speed of the handoff.

But I adapted quickly.

Freedom has a way of helping one grow.

UGa 

I attended the University of Georgia largely because that was where my mother wanted me to go. My sister and grandfather had both attended Georgia, and in many ways it felt like a family tradition.

Personally, I would have preferred to stay closer to home at either the University of Florida or the young University of South Florida, where many of my friends were going.

The Florida schools had recently removed many of the restrictions placed on women students, but Georgia still maintained curfews and locked the dormitories at night. My mother thought that sounded like an excellent idea.

I didn't mind it much. All the girls lived under the same rules, so it simply felt normal.

The bigger consequence was distance.

Going to Georgia meant I would only come home for holidays.

Medical College of Ga

I spent my first two years at Georgia and completed my final two years at the Medical College of Georgia, earning my bachelor's degree there.

Life in Augusta was different. There were few restrictions, but most of the medical students were so busy studying that they rarely stayed out very late.

That didn't mean there weren't parties.

There were some memorable ones, including parties where bathtubs were filled with grain alcohol and fruit juice.

College had a way of creating its own traditions.

UGa Talent Show

When I first arrived at Georgia, I didn't know a single person.

Fortunately, making friends came easily.

My dormitory was nine stories high, and I lived on the ninth floor. At night, I would sit in the stairwell playing my baritone guitar and singing.

The acoustics were wonderful.

Eventually, three girls from lower floors followed the music and introduced themselves. We formed a small singing group and entered the freshman talent show.

To be honest, we were not very good.

But we had a wonderful time.

Alpha Delta Pi

I also went through Rush and joined Alpha Delta Pi, the same sorority that my sister, mother, and grandmothers had belonged to.

The summer after my freshman year, I moved into the sorority house.

I loved it.

The home-cooked meals alone were enough to make me happy.

I was a notoriously picky eater at the time, and I can still remember my sorority sisters sitting on either side of me at dinner, placing food onto my plate whenever I tried to skip something.

The sorority house itself was a grand old mansion.

The younger girls slept several to a room upstairs, while the older sisters occupied small private rooms in a motel-like addition behind the house.

Oddly enough, I preferred the crowded rooms.

There was something cozy and comforting about sharing a room with three other girls.

When we wanted privacy, we would carry the landline telephone into a closet to have confidential conversations.

We spent many evenings playing bridge, laughing, talking, and simply enjoying being together.

Greek life suited me.

I suddenly had eighty sisters.

There were parties, songs, traditions, friendships, and a strong sense of belonging.

Life felt sweet and uncomplicated.

My classes were not especially difficult, leaving plenty of time for social activities. We attended fraternity socials, dances, football weekends, and endless gatherings where young men and women met, flirted, dated, and discovered themselves.

The Med College Environment

When I later moved to Augusta, much of that social atmosphere continued, though in a slightly different form.

And there was something else.

I loved being in the hospital environment.

The energy, the purpose, the intelligence, the possibility of helping people—it all fascinated me.

And if I am being honest, I thought the medical students hung the moon.

At that age, they seemed impossibly smart, confident, and accomplished.

The future looked wide open.

And for the first time in my life, I was fully responsible for discovering who I wanted to become.

Poem

College opened the gate

between childhood and adulthood.

One day I was somebody's daughter,

living under someone else's roof.

The next,

I was making my own choices,

finding my own friends,

creating a life that belonged to me.

There were songs in stairwells,

sorority dinners,

football weekends,

late-night conversations,

and dreams stretching farther than I had ever imagined.

And though I did not know it then,

I was learning a lesson that would stay with me forever:

Home is not a place you leave behind.

Home becomes the life you build wherever you are.