This day in personal history will always live in infamy with Paul and me. Why? It was the last day of our first semester of Marquette…and it didn’t kill us! Technically, I had completed my last final exam a couple of days earlier and I was breaking the rules by staying in the dorms; residents were supposed to leave within 24 hours of finishing their last exam. No one seemed to mind if I stuck around, worked some extra hours down in the cafeteria and enjoy college life without having to take classes, besides, Paul’s parents were going to give me a lift to O’Hare the following day.
When Paul returned from his Spanish 001 final, I remembered opening the windows in his room, turning up the volume on his roommate’s stereo and proceeding to enjoy Van Halen’s 5150. I know I was guilty of some air bass playing, I can’t recall if Paul was doing his best Eddie imitation.
After visiting some distant, obscure relatives on my mother’s side, Paul and I got back together to celebrate and this is when the evening became more interesting. I’m not going to bore you with the sordid details, I’ll leave that to Paul since he would be a more credible witness. He also tells the story better. Maybe this will prompt him to leave a comment or two.
The next morning was awful because I had never felt sicker in my life (events over the next 20 years found a way to exceed it in 1999). I am grateful no one chose to doodle on me too, an old college prank that was recently referenced on the new Brian Posehn comedy CD. Thankfully I’ve never had a hangover last for three days ever again.
I will always remember this day fondly not for the evening and aftermath but for the thrill of completing my first semester of college. When you’re growing up, people instill all this fear about how difficult it is. They go on about the classes, the homework, the professors and even the food. The real crisis is not going crazy from all the independence you get and how you can dig your own grave through it. A good chunk of our floor was on academic probation when we returned in January. These guys weren’t all dumb, they were just less disciplined than Paul and me. Okay, they were undisciplined compared to Paul and I was just cruising on what little smarts I had left from high school.