The Cycle of (College) Life - Part II

I just read a post from the blog I wrote on Sunday afternoon, April 28, 2013, sitting w/Sleeping Joe at Bongo Java.  In the post, I was lamenting the end of the school year at Belmont U. and the imminent departure of the college kids for the summer.  I also was anticipating, just a bit, the relative tranquility that comes with summer on a college campus.

Well, the tranquility is over, as today is orientation day at Belmont U., which marks the official end of summer.  It's appropos for me, since we arrived home less than two hours ago from our week of vacation at Santa Rosa Beach, Fl.  My summer is over, too.

I'm sitting at a table in the bar at "blvd." (on Belmont Boulevard), enjoying a locally brewed beer - red rye from "Jackaloupe," Sleeping Joe next to me in the Baby Jogger City Elite stroller.  When I finish up here, I'm going to walk over to Bongo Java for a "Mood Elevator," my first one in a week.  In other words, it's business as usual on a Saturday afternooon for me (and Joe).

Did I mention I love my neighborhood?

The bar itself (the restaurant doesn't open until 5 p.m.) is filled with parents who have come to town to drop their children - all freshmen - off for their first year at Belmont U.  I've written about this in past years, but it's fascinating to watch and listen to the parents.  I can overhear them talking and sharing bits of infomation wiht other couples.  They're a bit nervous, apprehensive even.  I can sense it in their tone of voice, in the way they talk to each other.  I can hear them trying to figure out where they're supposed to meet their son or daughter for dinner tonight, asking the bartender for directions to a restaurant.

I'm also getting a look, right now, from a lady (with her husband) at the bar, who has noticed I'm trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.  Sleeping Joe is my cover, though.  Surely she thinks I'm harmless, as I type away on my iPad with my sleeping toddler beside me in the stroller.

Belmont U. is in such a state of transition, with contruction projects ongoing all over campus.  At one point this summer, on the way to dinner with our boys, Jude and I counted 5 crains on campus.  It's a subject for another day, but I kind of feel like Belmont U., under Dr. Fisher's guidance, has lost its way.  Bigger is not always better.  Gone are the tennis courts that were open to the public and gone is most of the soccer field, where the men's and women's teams used to play and the students used to congregate at night, throwing frisbee and playing guitars.

The incoming freshman will probably see the contruction projects completed while they're here.  That's a good thing, I guess.  They will also make friends, lose friends, fall in and out of love, get part-time jobs, study, move in and out of dorm rooms, apartments and rental houses and become regulars at Bongo Java, blvd., P.M., Chago's Cantina, Mafiozza's, 12South Tap Room, Tacqueria del Sol, Burger Up, Frothy Monkey.  They will  explore their neighborhood.  They will explore
Nashville.  They wil grow up.

That's what I did, in Knoxville, TN, from September 1984 to December 1988.  And that's what my boys will do, somday.  But not too soon, I hope.  I'm not ready for Jude and me to be sitting at some bar in a town with which we're totally unfamiliar, talking nervously as we prepare to leave for home the next day, leaving J.P. or Joe behind to begin his freshman year at college.