BY MAGGIE BEAMGUARD | Insider Editor
This fall, there will be three “college” students in my family. My youngest starts her freshman year. My oldest starts her senior year. And at 50, as I approach my senior years, I’m back to hitting the books.
Technically, I am returning to seminary to pursue a Doctor of Ministry. But it feels very much like I’m going back to university.
When I started my freshman year at Clemson in 1994, we barely had the internet. If I wanted to access my email, I had to check with my roommate to make sure she didn’t need to make a phone call. Otherwise the chain email waiting for me would tie up our land line.
If you were alive last century, you undoubtedly recall the ungodly screeching of a dial-up connection.
I didn’t even have AOL. I had to access “Al Gore’s internet” by typing manual commands into a C:\> prompt. For you young’uns, that is what is known as a “C-prompt.” It appeared on a blank, black screen with a blinking cursor waiting for instructions.
Across campus, I carried a hunter green Jansport backpack filled with five-subject spiral notebooks, a binder with loose leaf paper, beat up text books from the campus used-book store, some Papermate pens and a few yellow highlighters.
They didn’t make Jansports with laptop sleeves back then.
The cellphones my daughters carry have the computing power of the whole English department in ‘94. And now my classroom exists on a screen via Zoom.
My classes are partly in-person and partly online. I submit assignments on a website called Canvas. The last time I turned in a paper, I slid it into my professor’s mailbox slot.
But some things haven’t changed. I find myself approaching this semester with the same nerdy enthusiasm I had then.
My daughters and I have been getting hyped up about what we need for the new school year. My freshman needs a laptop. I can get by using the one I have. She needs a mini-fridge, and I need a heating pad. She needs dorm room storage, and I need a back pillow for my desk chair.
My senior needs some new kicks. I need a kick of caffeine. She also needs meal money. I need fiber.
We may have different priorities, but all three of us will share first-day jitters.
Nevertheless, I still love the feeling of a fresh school year with its blank pages and sharpened Ticonderogas.
My youngest will be figuring out who she is as a college student. My oldest will be figuring out what comes next as she prepares to leave college behind. I am figuring out what it means to return to school somewhat wiser and greyer. The three of us are walking into something new together.
Now I happen to be carrying a backpack with a laptop sleeve. It also holds my reading glasses, ibuprofen, plenty of snacks, water, a phone charger and a second pair of glasses. The third pair sits on my head.
I’m a freshman again after all of these years. This time around I’m cutting out the all-nighters.
C:\> See you in class.
Contact Maggie Beamguard at maggie@thepilot.