wrong side of the table (ii)

met with the other duke alumni interviewers last night at the post bar in fullerton (which is totally one of the places i'm going to go to spend lavish amounts of money on other people when i have it - don't hold your breath). the chairman gave out assignments, and we discussed the possibility of holding a group thing in rjc, which i said that i could put together since i know e-ching and friends. early admission interviews are happening as you read this.

we reminisced about duke - all of the others had been there a decade or more ago and were quite eager to hear about what had changed, what was still the same. for one reason or another, it transpired that no one had since returned to the campus, and all of us agreed that we hate the idea of reunions, their artificiality, the forced catching up and faux bonhomie. consensus was that the best way to revisit the school is during the summer when everyone has gone home. wandering alone in the shadows of the gargoyles and clock towers - in one's personal duke, not the duke that students in generations after you have created.

it's a pleasure to meet good people; it's a comfort to know that duke alumni (this group, anyway) are not just successful but splendidly human. and it's great to think that even now, 10 or more years after their graduation, there's still a place in their hearts for the tranquility of the north carolinian countryside and a bowl of piping-hot grits.