Here in America: 92: The One On the Road Pt 1: The College

After Senior Survival, probably the biggest event of the year for our class was the Senior Class Trip. I could never have guessed, at the age of 18, that this would be the first of many class trips I would take. Granted, this would be the only one as a student--the rest would be as a teacher and trip leader--but seven years later, I'd take my first class of 8th graders on a trip to Bali. I have been doing class trips ever since. I even revisited some of my senior class destinations over the years--Chicago in 2016, Atlanta in 2019 and white water rafting in North Carolina in 2021.

But the spring of 1992, was my first trip.

In 2018, I added a second trip to my students' school year--an annual social studies trip to either Washington D.C. or Philadelphia. For our first few trips, we tied the excursion to the date of Pine Forge Academy Days so our 8th graders could participate. In the same way, Forest Lake Academy kicked off our class trip with College Days at what was then known as Southern College.

Southern was the considered the flagship college for the Florida Conference and the Southern Union. (The Southern Union is also home to Oakwood College, as it was then known, but only Southern was considered for a visit) and it was hoped and expected that many of us would attend there.

To be honest, I had a very negative attitude towards Southern. I had never even visited the campus but arrived with a sneering, arrogant attitude towards the school. I never gave the place a chance. I expected I would hate it, and so of course I did. Even the very things that should have made Southern a selling point, such as the friendly students and staff were a turn off to me. I declared the "Southern hospitality" fake and the people on campus boring and "generic." I was kind of a jerk frankly.

In truth, I think I was having a real crisis of identity in the second half of my senior year. There were a lot of reasons--and none of them were anyone else's fault. I was just on my own journey of figuring out who I was. And I had come to the conclusion that I was someone who did not "belong" in the Forest Lake Academy milieu. And because Southern was presented as the obvious next step for Forest Lake Academy students, I knew it was not for me.

Looking back, I think I was maybe unfair to FLA, and certainly to Southern in my harsh judgements. But I do think I was right to elect not to go to Southern for college. I did need a fresh start, a chance to reinvent myself. I don't think I could have done that at Southern College.

I've left out quite a bit from my journal entries. There was a lot of emotion I chose not to share here. A girl I was hoping to start something with (It didn't work out, leading me to be in a very foul mood for much of the class trip); another girl I was hopelessly in love with--all of this took up many pages. And then there was the griping about how horrible Southern was. I've left much of that out too. What's left is actually a pretty decent weekend, hanging out with my buddy Jeremy Partlo, shooting guns, and whatnot before the College Days festivities kicked off on Sunday, April 5.

Some selections from my journal:

Friday, April 3, 1992, Southern College, Collegedale TN

3:01 PM On the road to Southern College--Still in Florida. I'm sitting in this packed van on my way up to SC-every generic person's dream. This is the prelude to our senior class trip. Me and the others with me are going up early for various reasons. Some are taking tests or being in competitions, others are only under the pretense of doing so and are actually going up to go off campus with friends or relatives. I fall in the latter category. I'm going to see Jeremy who's living up there to be near his fiancée. I'm sitting near the front of the van with Matthew and Vladimir. Behind me are Susan, Tonya. . .Verlene, Steve & Jenny, Geri, Chandra, and Jeff. Coach Fulbright and Claudia are the mandatory sponsors.

We've been on the road for about 4 hours. A little less, since 11:30. It's been pretty cool. I'm listening to Carissa's U2 tape for the second time. I really like it. The music is very poetic. . .

11:52 PM We are here. Not much else to say. Steve, Jeff, and I are staying in this crap room and I gotta sleep on the floor. Saw Jeremy and had supper at his house. A nice little mobile home about five minutes from the college. I'm going over there again tomorrow. It's not bad. The trip up here was pretty decent.

The class trip was where I began my relationship with the band U2. It started with Achtung Baby, their most recent release which had just come out the previous fall. I was familiar with some of the songs from the radio--tunes like "Mysterious Ways" and "One." I liked what I heard from Carissa's cassette and was hungry for more. A couple of days later, once we were on the road to Chicago, someone tipped me off that Tony Exon had a tape of The Joshua Tree. I borrowed the tape and the rest is history. I was all in for U2 and have been ever since. Fourteen years later, I'd hear "Where the Streets Have No Name" live and in person for the very first time (You can read my account here) in Tokyo, Japan. Ten concerts later you won't find a bigger U2 fan. And it all started with Carissa and Tony.

Sabbath, April 4, 1992, Southern College

10:04 PM I'm at at Jeremy's again. We're just hanging out here jammin' to Beatles and Guns N' Roses. . .Hung out with Jeremy all day pretty much. We went to church in Ooltewah. The sermon was pretty good--what I heard of it. I kept falling asleep. I was so tired. I have been dead tired all day and I feel kind of bad because I was probably kind a drag, always dozing off on Jeremy.

We ate at the cafe and then hung out at our room with Jeff, Geri, and Chandra until Coach came and chased the girls out. After that Jeremy and I went shooting. We shot his and Michelle's two .22 pistols and his riot version pistol grip 12 gauge shotgun like the one Linda Hamilton used in Terminator 2. That was awesome. After that we went out to Lookout Mountain and drove to the top. That was great. The view was breathtaking.

Tonight we just cruised around and went to the mall for awhile before we came back here. It's been nice to talk to Jeremy again and catch up on things. He's really looking forward to getting married (naturally) but he's still pretty much the same old Jeremy I've always known.

Out shooting again on Sunday afternoon, April 5 after the main group of seniors had arrived. In the photo are Rees Franklin, Earl Gensolin (I think), and Brandon Wiley.

Mark Reams flanked by a person I can't quite make out on the left and I think Steve Gensolin on the right

Jeremy

Rees and Greg Wedel horsing around (Do not try this at home)

Sunday, April 5, 1992, Southern College

11:47 PM Today wasn't too bad. I can't complain, really. I'm staying in this guy Kelly's room at the boys dorm. He's a pretty decent guy. Not arrogant or fake like a lot of the people here. Les is supposed to be staying here too but I haven't seen him yet.

Not a lot say about today. I got up late--at least for being away from home--around 10:30. Just hung out this morning. The rest of our school got here about 11:30 accompanied by much fanfare, fire engines, and all that. . .Our school has basically dominated since we got here.

This afternoon, J, Rees, Greg, Brandon and myself went off campus with Jeremy and went shooting again. It was a lot of fun. We met Earl and Steve Gensolin and Mark Reams and this other guy out there.

Tonight we had some gym show. It was okay. I hate this place.

Heather Dunkel, Chris Cotta, and Mark Reams. I think they are on the fire engine during the "welcome procession" when our school arrived at Southern. I don't recall being on the fire engine myself, since I was already there, so I don't know where I got this photo from. Maybe it was when they arrived.