The Blog is Back
There are many reasons why I'm doing this again, but the biggest reason is that I like to look at them later. Anyway, there's a lot to catch up on.
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After 8 months in Switzerland, it's been good to reconnect with my community at Davidson, and elsewhere.
But honestly, it felt like I never left.
Lake campus is one of my favorite things about Davidson. The ability to go to a beach/dock/beautiful waterfront property is pretty unique.
Sadly, it's underused. People are usually too busy.
We played a lot of golf in the Fall semester to prepare for corporate golf outings.
And my apartment cooked together like a family once a month (usually).
Fall Break
We stayed at Chris's house in Charleston over fall break.
And did some wakeboarding.
Some were better at it than others.
We played tennis.
KVT had a great year. (Klub Var$ity Tennis)
We played in a bunch of tournaments and did better than Davidson ever has.
KVT, and the people that make it up, is something that I will really miss.
The end of an era.
If you know me, you probably know about my Hobie cat, Callula. In 2015 I spent all of the money I earned over the summer on this 1981, 18 foot catamaran.
The previous owner is a truck driver who lives in Florida. I will never forget the look on his face when he saw 16 year old me at his door to pick up his boat.
Since then it's been an invaluable activity that I've been lucky to share with many of my friends.
Some of my favorite days have been spent on this boat.
On a windy Tuesday in November, me and John Dale were feeling particularly stressed out about a project. Naturally, we headed straight to the lake, because sailing is the best way to deal with that.
This was the last sail that Callula had in her. Up until now, broken rudders, holes, and torn sails were all fixable (and somewhat expected).
But this was different.
The conditions JD and I went out in weren't rough to the point where we expected something bad to happen, but the thinning fiberglass couldn't handle the pressure any more. The port hull literally snapped in half and left us sinking in the center of lake Norman. Thankfully we were rescued by some casual Monday afternoon boaters who brought us back to lake campus. Callula did not make it back.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still grieving, but I'll always have the plethora of memories that were made on this boat and the lessons I learned from them (and the scars too).
This boat had been a part of who I am for so long, and now that it's gone it has left a large gap.
The gap can only be filled by the next boat, and for that I am excited.
RIP Callula 1981 - 2019
We went to DC to look at art.
Who doesn't love the arts?
You probably won't like most paintings you see, and that's okay.
But, odds are, you'll find at least one that you can't stop looking at.
John Dale graduated early in December. We went to Mandalinos to celebrate.
The (1/2) Spring semester was not the same without him.
St. Croix (Part 1)
On Christmas day, my family got on a plane to go to St. Croix. Not bad.
We also celebrated Lauren's 19th birthday.
St. Croix is a special place.
One of my favorite activities to do there is to snorkel.
There's so much to see underwater.
And on land.
I learned in my Native America class that there were Native cruzan people on St. Croix when Columbus came inland looking for fresh water.
It always amazes me how they got to islands like this one without big, advanced boats.
We did some diving.
Diving is snorkeling on steroids.
You can go farther, deeper, and see more.
Lauren and I got a tour of the Cane Bay Wall and the Frederiksted pier led by a couple of experts.
In January, school started again.
This semester was a special one, as was my last at Davidson.
I did a poor job planning for going abroad/meeting all my distribution requirements, so I had to take 5 classes instead of the normal 4.
This was (is?) fine, except I had a lot to juggle.
I blinked one, maybe two times and boom it was Spring break.
St. Croix (Part 2)
So we went back to St. Croix. Different group this time though.
Flying with your friends is an inordinate amount of fun.
I can't tell you why, it just is.
We had 19 college seniors staying in 3 bedrooms (1 bathroom). You do the math.
But we made it work with astonishing grace.
Grandma Ginny procured 5 air mattresses, which was clutch.
You're probably wondering, "How did they get around with all those bodies?"
And that's a great question.
It was an extreme hassle trying to rent cars, and I will skip the details.
The result was 3 sedans, 5 seats each.
Which is simply not enough.
But we made it work.
Every day was a new adventure. We had 5 days there, and each day we we did things.
Everyone had a great time jumping in the frame right before I took the picture. They thought they were being clever, but that's exactly what I wanted them to do.
I couldn't have handpicked a finer group of friends.
Vibes reached an all time high at sunset Bingo.
And then we found Holden's long lost twin ⇧.
This is my favorite picture of the trip. Chris had no idea it was taken.
I don't know how I got lucky enough to pull off a trip like this, but it was amazing.
Now what?
Things never really went back to normal after Spring break. On Thursday, March 12th, we got the email notifying us that college was over because of coronavirus.
That was one of the worst emails ever.
We had 5 days to move out for good.
Which means 5 days to squeeze in the rest of college.
That's simply not enough time.
There was a lot of stuff that I was looking forward to doing, that won't ever happen now.
But that's okay because there are many good days ahead.
Online school isn't great, especially when one of your classes is entirely based on experiments.
But, as always, there are still a lot of things to be thankful for.
I got to spend some quality quarantine time with some friends on Isle of Palms.
We were going to the beach a lot, but now that is also not feasible.
Chris came by to say hi every once and a while, but always stayed far away just in case.
What a bizarre time this is.
So what's next? It's tough to say anything about the summer.
In August I'm moving to New York to do a masters in electrical engineering at Columbia University. That should be fun.
See you next time.