Home, Once

Never would I have a more memorable time than the month I spent in the mountains, though I wonder, when I say this, if it appears so only because it is our nature to make a heaven out of places to which we can never return. ~Yiyun Li, Gold Boy, Emerald Girl

Doing interviews of high school seniors for my college has been a really rewarding experience for many reasons. I've gotten to meet new people, see people I already know, and talk to really bright teenagers. What's not to love?

Now that interview season has started up again, I am reminded of how young incoming students are. One student who loves the Harry Potter series told me she read them in quick succession in middle school. All the Harry Potter books at once? Inconceivable! I told her about getting the last book at the Penn State bookstore the day it came out when I was a summer RA and holing up in my room to read it and bawl my eyes out in private. I tried not to sound like one of those "back in my day" folks, but I'm not sure I succeeded.

When I interview these students, I think about what I was like in high school and college. I think about what I'm like now. I wonder what my 18-year-old self would think about my, well, not-18-anymore self. I wonder if the high school students look at me and consider me a good representative of the honors college, if they think to themselves, "I want to be like her." (Or maybe more along the lines of "Who let her into the honors college?" Ha. I will just say that interviews were not even an option when I applied, so I didn't have to opportunity to dazzle anyone with my nerdy and awkward self.) I wonder if they think I have my shit together (I don't), if Penn State made me the way I am (it kind of did).

I admire these students' poise and their confident demeanor. I feel like it's only maybe within the last five years that I developed a lot of the skill set that goes into coming off as a mature professional. Which, I suppose, makes some sense, as it has only been in the past five years that I've been in a professional setting. Even so, I've subconsciously worked hard on how to be polite, how to hold a conversation, how to network, because I can see these improvements in myself. I wanted to come out of my shell in college, and I think I succeeded at that. I talked to lecture-size classes about TFA; I was an RA/SA; I was on TV! Those were all things my high school self maybe dared to dream about, but never imagined actually happening.

I also find myself so excited to tell them about Penn State and the honors college. Do they know? Do they know they have their whole lives ahead of them? Do they know that they'll dance at the weddings of people they met there? Do they know they'll crash at each other's places in cities all over the country? How do you pour that out in an interview?

I don't doubt that the same could be said about pretty much any college experience, but of course there's something more stirring about talking to kids who could possibly following my college experience. Soon enough, they'll know. And later, when they're no longer there, they'll recognize it for the magic it was.