i’m sorting through papers i inherited from past Student Admissions Council staff directors… and i found the binder for Owl Weekend 1997. this is the owl weekend that i attended as a high school senior… the weekend that convinced me that rice was where i wanted to be.
it is almost eerie to flip through the pages and see the names of “owls” (prospective students) who came that weekend. i took out a few pages with names like seth eatinger, julie edwards, amber garrison, craig harrison, laura balzano, kendall moseley… i saw the names of j.p. slavinsky and margaret van meter (who are now married)… i saw names of people i never knew, who didn’t come to rice, and i wonder what life would have been like if they *had* come.
i get a little shiver when i think about all of us descending upon campus, with little idea of what was to come… and now i look back and i see more than just names, i see paths that were built and shaped at rice, paths that lead to now. and i smile a little secret, slightly wistful smile.
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