All Growed Up and On Their Way

Yesterday I got a message on FACEBOOK from two of my nieces, Becky and Katie. Becky recently graduated from college, is headed to Portland for August and then Paris for 10 months to be an au pair. Katie is leaving on the 15th to start the adventure called college. Dayton, Ohio will be her home for the next four years.


It has been fun and amazing watching them grow up and become the confident, grounded women they are today. We are so proud of both of them and know that they will be a blessing to the lives they touch.


I have been pondering how different the world is for Becky and Katie than it was in 1973 when I headed off to college with a manual typewriter and lots of pens. Now students at Houghton are issued a laptop and backpack with their freshman ID passes.


In 1973 there were 2 or 3 TVs on campus and one phone in the hall for 30 girls to share. Now students can text each other in class on their cell phones and watch TV on their IPOD if they are bored.


To connect with other students on campus I either had to find them or call and hope they were in their rooms. Seeing each other's pictures meant crowding into someone's room and passing around a set of glossy pictures fresh from the Fotomat. But FACEBOOK has emerged and changed all that!


I know it started out as a way for students to connect on campuses but...
I think it is a wonderful way to connect with people we have "lost" from our past. I have connected with two old pals from the '77 Houghton gang and hope to connect with others soon.


Each friend we make touches our lives in a different way. Too soon we have gone our separate ways and it is easy to lose the connection. Depending on snail mail was a tough way to stay in touch. For people like me who put mail at the bottom of my list it was nearly impossible.


Seven of us tried mailing a journal through the group, each one sending it on to the next person. It took about 3 months to go through the group and I think it only made the rounds twice. I'm sure I was the one who dropped the ball!!


My advice to Katie and Becky.

"Don't lose the people you have in your life now or the ones you are still to meet. Stay connected!! Stay in touch!! Keep your FACEBOOK alive. Never let go of those treasures called friends. It's so much easier to keep them than to try and reconnect. And by the way, thanks for letting me be one of your FACEBOOK friends!! Love, Aunt Sharon"