i might have missed my calling

in the last couple months i’ve made several trips to my alma mater, southwest texas state university…

…now called “texas state university”, but it’ll always be “SWT” to me.

it wasn’t to reclaim some part of my youth, nor was it to try and pick up college girls. the former is still very much a part of me, and the latter is a level of hell i’d rather not visit (and not just ’cause i’m married – even when i was single and thought of dabbling down that road it just wreaked of hair plugs and red corvettes and mid-life bullshit to me).

no, it’s because i’m old enough that some of my college chums have college-aged (or soon to be college-aged) kids and so they come back to campus to give their kids tours, know i live in the area, and there we are.

it’s allowed me to connect with some old professors and get in some good cardio (for all those not familiar with the place it’s built quite literally into a mountain range along a major tectonic fault line here in central texas – so to say it’s “hilly” would be a gross understatement). but each time i’ve noticed something – college kids tend to dig me. now, i’m kinda cheating – the only professors i’ve visited have been in the mass communication department, where i was knows as somewhat of a wiz kid finishing three hour exams in thirty minutes and acing them, being on faculty as an undergrad, etc, etc…but regardless, they all seemed kind of mesmerized by me. i think it’s because they faculty in the department, for the most part, hasn’t changed since i was there. not that they’re not good at what they do – they’re GREAT at what they do…but they were college professors in the 1990’s (as was i, to a degree) and still are. i wonder if maybe the kids listened to me because i was new?

either way, i noticed i felt a bit revitalized each time i left campus. it might be the attention. it might be the experience of helping mold collegiate minds. or maybe it was just the altitude – but either way, i felt revitalized.

and i’m wondering if i missed my calling…

…keep in mind my mom passed within a year of my graduation. not that back then i had ever considered going back as faculty – having done it my last semester as an undergrad i took a “been there, done that” kind of attitude towards it, honestly. but if she HADN’T died, so i hadn’t gotten that emotional kick to the teeth coupled with losing my radio gig weeks later so i felt directionless i wonder how things would have been. or when she died and i lost the gig if i could have focused better, gone back, and gotten a masters degree so i could have headed that way i wonder how things could have been?

i’ll never know…

…but on the upside, if my life had had that much focus and direction i probably wouldn’t have ended up in a job with such an off schedule that forced me into online dating and i never woulda met the ufc…so things happen for a reason. but i wonder if it’s too late to consider collegiate teaching?

oh, and just because of the date this falls on some of my friends would be upset if i didn’t say something, so we’ll end with an impromptu meme sixer, thus excusing me from a sixer on sunday in my eyes:

and finally…