Michigan Pete.

Michigan Pete.  Or was it Steve?  Or Dave?  I'm not entirely sure.  I was working today at the Outing Club house, reading Persuasian and generally not doing much work while I was earning my work-study money when a father-son duo walked through the doors.   

 Awkwardly stood there.  

And I awkwardly looked at them. 

...........And then we both seemed to acknowledge our mutual failure at acting with acceptable social decorum. 

I launched into a smiley welcome and the father asked me to "give us the real tour" while the son twisted his UVM brochure tighter...tighter....tighter...tighter.....

They were tall, thin, similar builds.  Runners I later learned.  They had travelled here from Michigan and were doing the college tour during spring break.

"Give us the real tour!"

I had to think for a minute.  What does that even mean?  I have two weeks left of classes before my life as an undergraduate comes to a bitter-sweet end and yet I couldn't just launch into anything "real" without pausing.                 

Pause.

The university system is such a system! The "real" deal is that you have to work that system.  Pay a small fortune, hope you land somewhere you mildly enjoy, find people to create a home with, a subject that inspires and impassions some part of you and do it all within a pretty rigid system created way before you got here, that will last way after you leave.  

This all went flying through my brain as I stared at Father and son Mid-west.  What came out of my mouth was.  Burlington is stellar.  UVM is fun.  Beer is plentiful.  Professors are approachable.  The Mountains are fun to hike.

Because I in reality all of those things are true.  And the father paying the thousands of dollars to send his son here wants to hear those things.  And I honestly wanted to say them.  Because I love this school and this town and these people.  Even with it's long-ass winters, hard-ass president, and stupid-ass hippies. 

When the Michigan men left, I had to laugh at how quickly I became UVM's cheerleader.

I may have worked the system, but the system worked me too.