Beginning the College Hunt, Part I

This past Friday, Anna and Megan Schipono and David and I went to the kids' first college tour experience, and it was probably just about everything I could have secretly hoped it would be.

When I began my college hunt, back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth and great flocks of wild chickens darkened the skies, college tours were *maybe* the summer between sophomore and junior year, but certainly a spring-break-junior-year activity.  These days, and with this boy, it's better to start sooner.  One of his (now college-attending) Boy Scout friends had confided in me that when he was a sophomore, his folks took him on a tour, and it sharpened his desire: Yes, I really want that, and so I'd better start getting serious about studying in order to get it.  Can't hurt to get started, then.

The proto-archaeologist had become aware that William and Mary, down at Williamsburg, had an excellent archaeology/anthropology program on the colonial period (duh), so he asked to visit.  Unbeknownst to us, Megan had discovered their marketing program and also asked for a tour.  Which both sets of parents independently set up for the exact same day and hour during spring break.

After arriving and parking and lunch at the Cheese Shop, we walked onto campus and into the oldest part of campus, the iconic Wren Building (oldest extant academic building in America) dead ahead.  We explored that, then wandered through the old campus and onto the newer pieces, eventually discovering the marble floors of the business school.

Megan and David in front of the Wren Building

Our tour lasted a shade over two hours; 45 minutes of overview by the school in an auditorium at the student center, then off with our senior tour guide, Max, who walked us through many features of the campus.  We saw the cafeteria, the Crim Dell and learned of its curse, then saw the library, the chemistry building, and eventually over to a dorm room, before finishing with English lit and returning through the Wren Building's arched passageway.

Max leading the tour, with Megan, David, and Anna

At the conclusion, Max told a story about convocation: arriving freshmen have to endure a speech by the president in the oldest part of the campus, out where the kids had their picture taken.  Then the new freshmen walk through Wren Building to the growing sound of applause, and on reaching the other side, they find the entirety of the rest of the University there, all green and gold, clapping, high-fiving, welcoming them to W&M, and from that moment on, he said, "you are Tribe."  That really resonated with David, and I have to confess, with me too.

On parting, Max told us where to find the anthropology department, and we headed to the basement of Washington Building.  A class had just let out, and when we poked our head into the lab, the woman there called out, "Come on in and look around!"

That began an hour-and-a-half conversation I'm still processing.   (To Be Continued)